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  • Appyhigh – Success Story of India’s First & Largest App Ecosystem

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organization

    The development and usage of mobile Internet technology have been tremendous in the last decade. The growth of the mobile industry in parallel to the digital technology transformation is making the life of people much easier. The developers are helping build great mobile apps to engage and inspire millions.

    AppyHigh is a mobile internet technology company to bridge the gap between people and technology. It has built innovative products and solutions and has achieved to engage over 550 million.  Read the startup story of AppyHigh, its founders, the ideation, business model & Revenue model, and more.

    AppyHigh – Company Highlights

    Startup Name AppyHigh
    Headquarters Gurgaon
    Industry Internet Technology
    Founder Venus Dhuria and Aneesh Rayancha
    Founded 2018
    Website appyhigh.com

    AppyHigh – About
    AppyHigh – Industry
    AppyHigh – Founders and Team
    AppyHigh – The Idea and Startup Story
    AppyHigh – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    AppyHigh – Product and Services
    AppyHigh – Team Management and Work Culture
    AppyHigh – Employee Engagement Initiatives
    AppyHigh – Recruitment
    AppyHigh – Business and Revenue Model
    AppyHigh – Customer Acquisition
    AppyHigh – Challenges Faced
    AppyHigh – Growth
    AppyHigh – Funding
    AppyHigh – Investment
    AppyHigh – Award and Achievement
    AppyHigh – Competitors
    AppyHigh – Tools Used in the Company
    AppyHigh – Recognition and Achievements
    AppyHigh – Future Plans

    AppyHigh – About

    Vision: AppyHigh envisions a world where living is simple, decluttered and enriching. They are creating that reality, one app at a time.

    Purpose: They are building a house of everyday apps that are intuitive and easy to use. They seek to mitigate friction from everyday lives, by helping people save time by being more efficient & productive.

    Identity: A mobile internet technology company that builds global products to engage and inspire millions – every day. They are a multi-product, global tech company building utility and content platforms for the next billion.

    AppyHigh – Industry

    AppyHigh aims to serve a billion internet users by 2026 through its ecosystem of intuitive everyday apps. In that sense, the market is a multi-billion opportunity. The following highlight the multifaceted market opportunity –

    1. There are 6.3 bn smartphone users across the world. This is projected to cross 7.3 bn by 2025. The opportunity is even bigger in the developing world, especially India where this number is expected to shoot up to 895 mn from the current 600 mn in the same period.

    2. The digital advertising industry in India is estimated at USD 2 bn currently and is expected to expand to USD 10 bn by 2025, according to Dentsu Digital India Report 2021.  On a global scale, it’s expected to touch USD 700 bn from the current USD 378 bn.

    3. The global creator economy is pegged at almost USD 100 bnand is expected to grow to USD 500 bn by 2025, according to Kalari Capital’s report on the creator economy.

    4. Further, with their expertise in the app ecosystem after launching almost 20 successful apps, they also seek to cater to the developer community with the SaaS products that help them monitor and scale their apps. The global SaaS industry itself stands at a staggering size of $ 272 bn today and is poised to touch $ 440 bn by 2025.

    All of these are direct market opportunities for AppyHigh given its portfolio of apps focused on everyday use, creativity and design tools for the creator ecosystem, and business tools for app developers.

    AppyHigh – Founders and Team

    Venus Dhuria and Aneesh Rayancha are the co-founders of AppyHigh.

    Venus Dhuria

    Venus Dhuria - Co-Founder of AppyHigh
    Venus Dhuria – Co-Founder of AppyHigh

    Venus is a 3x tech-entrepreneur building AppyHigh as a multi-product, global internet tech company that makes mobile-first platforms for productivity and utility, entertainment, content discovery and creation, for the next billion!

    He hails from a small border town called Fazilka in Punjab. Right from his early college days at Punjab Engineering College, Venus displayed a strong entrepreneurial zeal that not only enabled him to bag laurels throughout his academic career but has also fueled his serial entrepreneurship journey.

    Venus started his career at Reckitt – one of the largest consumer goods companies in the world, scaling the corporate ropes as he worked in the supply chain,  manufacturing and value engineering for iconic brands like Dettol, Harpic & Mortein. Reckitt is also where he met Aneesh who worked there as an R&D scientist.

    Venus then went on to start Cricnwin- a cricket fan engagement platform. He raised seed funding and grew the platform to a million plus downloads.

    When away from work, Venus can often be found reading and watching anything history,  philosophy, psychology & humour. Apart from being an ardent cricket enthusiast, Venus is also an amateur rapper.

    Aneesh Rayancha

    Aneesh Rayancha - co-founder of AppyHigh
    Aneesh Rayancha – co-founders of AppyHigh

    Aneesh is a serial entrepreneur, building AppyHigh as a multi-product, global internet tech company that makes mobile-first platforms for productivity and utility, entertainment, content discovery and creation, for the next billion!

    Hailing from a small town in Telangana – Ranjana Siricilla, Aneesh’s passion for digital products stems from his affinity for computer science and information technology which ignited during his days at IIT Mumbai, where he pursued a master’s degree in chemistry.

    Together with Venus, he has started and scaled multiple ventures over the last 9 years.

    They also experimented with building aggregator apps and created 3 of them – AnyJobs, Samachari and Smartshopper. This was the starting point for AppyHigh.

    His first venture after being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug was a cleaning-chemicals company called InnoChem – banking on his experience as an R&D scientist at Reckitt working on iconic consumer brands such as Mortein and Dettol. Reckitt is also where he met Venus.

    Having undergone the struggle of entrepreneurship himself, Aneesh firmly believes in supporting the startup ecosystem and budding founders with both experience and capital. AppyHigh is a well-known name in the investing circles for pre-seed funding with investments in over 20 companies, including  Dukaan, Krishify, and One Code among others.

    In his free time, Aneesh enjoys gardening and horse-riding and is currently also training for a shot at participating in the IronMan in the near future.

    AppyHigh – The Idea and Startup Story

    Venus and Aneesh have known each other for more than a decade and are serial entrepreneurs. Aneesh holds a master’s degree in chemistry from IIT Mumbai while Venus is an electrical engineer from PEC Chandigarh. They met while working at Reckitt.

    In 2014, Aneesh & Venus together started Rutogo, a cab aggregator for outstation and local cabs. They raised funds from friends & family & scaled it to cover bookings from 20 cities in 12 months. They further expanded services to 60 cities, before Ixigo acquired them in 2015. The product merged with Ixigo Cabs & they joined Ixigo to lead this vertical and expanded it to 10,000 bookings per day.

    When they observed the rapid pace of internet expansion fuelled by the humble smartphone, they decided to experiment and observed 4 prominent patterns emerging in the consumer internet industry –

    1. Everything was becoming mobile first. Tasks were transitioning from PC to smartphones and an entire generation of internet users was entirely skipping the PC.
    2. People were spending almost half of their time awake on their smartphones, managing every aspect of their lives via their phones.
    3. There were almost 6 million apps on all the iOS AppStore and Google Playstore put together, which is causing a problem of plenty.
    4. They understood the value of building a business that is self-sufficient from day one, hence the marginal cost of scaling up should be as low as possible.
    5. There was significant impetus being given by the government to Make in India

    This gave birth to the idea of building everyday apps that are intuitive and easy to use and help people save time, become more productive and of course enjoy themselves while using them.

    There was a lot of traction around the concept of ‘All-in’1’ & that’s how MessengerGo – an all-in-1 platform to access all your social media accounts and messengers, was launched.

    Venus and Aneesh started AppyHigh with their personal savings and hence did most of the work themselves. They hired an app development intern to help them build the app, while the product design, launch & driving organic scaling was all done personally by them.

    Validation of AppyHigh’s ideas has happened through their apps achieving significant growth in downloads and active users one app after the other. In 4 years, AppyHigh has launched 15+ apps that have garnered almost 500 million downloads and their revenues have grown at a CAGR of 45% in the last 2 years as per various news report of year 2022.

    AppyHigh - Logo
    AppyHigh – Logo

    Its name and logo embody what AppyHigh truly is. Appyzens are very passionate about building apps to solve the everyday needs of the digital masses. They derive a ‘high’ feeling from doing this. Further, their apps are designed to make life easier and decluttered for people! Giving users a happy high through their apps. This defines the origin of the name AppyHigh.

    The logo’s fundamental building block is the quintessential symbol for apps – the squircle. The colon stands for bringing people and technology together, while the semicolon represents fostering startups with capital and growth.

    AppyHigh – Product and Services

    With 6 million apps available across various app stores, there are three pertinent issues that need to be addressed:

    1. Users don’t find apps they download useful enough: Almost 89% of the apps are uninstalled within 7 days of installation and this number goes up to 95% for 30 days.
    2. Phone space matters: Every user uses 80-90 apps on average. But phone space is a major constraint; in fact, 20% of app uninstalls happen due to lack of space. It is the 2nd biggest reason for app uninstall.
    3. Just too many apps: Every year almost 2 million apps are released. To date, 21 million apps have been released by developers, but only 6 million remain active. This means that only 30% of the apps ever released are useful enough to be relevant and survive.
    4. Absence of trusted brands providing quality products: Unlike the physical world where products belong to reputed and highly visible manufacturers/providers, the app ecosystem is dominated by almost a million developers, most of them not very well known. There is a dearth of reputed well-established brand/product stables that consumers can blindly trust for high-quality, reliable and safe products.

    AppyHigh aims to be a global consumer internet company that is the trusted partner for a billion users in their digital journey.

    They are addressing the above problems through their unique ecosystem of intuitive, reliable, easy-to-use everyday apps. Their apps, Instore and MessengerGo, enable people to do more with social media and communication, and acquire information (news, data, browsing); BrowserGo enhances their everyday browsing experience with a personal content feed; and apps like TV Lens, Like Karo, serve them curated content. Besides, their utility apps, Scanner GO, AppLockGO and Share Karo India, enhance their daily productivity.

    Their USP lies in their ecosystem of apps. Other players are either focused on bringing traditional services online – e.g. travel, transportation, shopping, finance, health, education, etc., or creating single apps performing one standalone feature i.e. a standalone scanning app company, or a standalone file sharing app company.

    Their ecosystem is based on what they call the ‘Digital Hierarchy of Needs’. Like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – starting from the most basic physiological needs to safety, love and belonging and eventually, self-actualisation needs – an individual’s digital life can be described using the ‘Digital Hierarchy of Needs’.

    AppyHigh Services
    AppyHigh Services

    At the bottom layer are the basics – utility apps which perform day-to-day tasks like file sharing, file storage/management, phone security and privacy, phone memory cleaning, etc. This is where AppyHigh apps like Share Karo, AppLock Go, Cleaner Go, etc., come into play.

    The middle layer focuses on experiences – those which serve the need to belong, to build genuine connections, to be understood. This happens through social media apps, content, and entertainment apps. Their products like Instore, M video maker, Like Karo, Browser Go and TVLens aim to elevate the content and entertainment experience of users.

    The top layer is the service layer where users start paying for premium services/features, which give them more personalised and exclusive experiences – like subscriptions, in-app purchases, online commerce, etc. Premium features of their products such as ScannerGo and their B2B offerings address this layer.

    AppyHigh is a one-stop shop for the most reliable and intuitive apps for a diverse range of actions users might want to perform.

    Some of the prominent products of AppyHigh with few details are:

    AI Avatar Maker

    It’s a one make individualized, one-of-a-kind avatars that showcase individuality. With more than 50 different AI avatars, one can alter how people view you. This covers social media profiles, personal portfolio, and professional social networks, as well as your dating profile.

    MageAI GPT

    The AI-powered chatbot MageAI GPT makes it simple and quick to discover answers to all of customers inquiries. As a GPT model, MageAI GPT may retain up to 1000 words from a conversation, making it simpler to rapidly and precisely obtain the needed information.

    Scanner Go

    One can scan, convert, optimize, and share documents directly from smartphone with the pocket-sized, all-in-one scanner app called ScannerGO.

    Generative AI APP

    AppyHigh has launched first generative AI in September, 2023. With its launch, AppyHigh will combine an AI picture generator, AI photo editor, chat assistant, avatar builder, VPN, and camera scanner into one platform, with the goal of democratizing top-tier technology.

    AppyHigh – Team Management and Work Culture

    They are a 51-200 team. They focus on building a positive and collaborative environment, where people can learn and have a blast while doing it. Appyzens are encouraged to experiment and take full ownership to find innovative solutions.

    They have put in place a number of initiatives to ensure the well-being and growth of their team. These include:

    Learning budgets: AppyHigh is big on upskilling and supporting people rapidly in this tech/digital-first world. Every individual gets a personal learning budget, which he or she can use for availing of Udemy courses of their choice.

    Paternity leave: 1-month paternity leave + 1 month WFH

    Period leave: AppyHigh’s leave policy includes 10 days of paid period leaves every year for all women employees. This is a small step in their journey to be an equal opportunity workplace and does their part in dispelling the taboo around menstruation. They also maintain an open and positive environment along with proper checks to ensure none of their women employees feels awkward while availing of this benefit.

    Comprehensive health insurance: They offer a comprehensive employee health insurance plan with an insured sum of up to Rs 10 lakh for each employee and his or her family through leading insurance companies. The group insurance policy covers maternity benefits, pre- and post-hospitalisation expense coverage and more.

    Device ownership policy: They have a unique policy wherein the laptop ownership is transferred to the employees on completion of three years.

    AppyHigh – Employee Engagement Initiatives

    Virtual fun sessions: With in-person get-togethers becoming difficult due to the lockdown and the flexibility to work from chosen locations, they moved many of their celebrations, such as Diwali and Independence Day, online. They kicked off their virtual town hall last year with some great team-building workshops, and also brought in Rahul Subramanian and Kumar Varun for an evening of standup comedy.

    Offsite workshops: They grew from less than 30 people to around 100, all during the lockdown. Although working online has become the new norm, the entire team continues to fire on all cylinders. To build focus on the future and achieve the scale that they want to, they have launched offsite workathons and strategy workshops starting with key functional leaders, to enable people to connect better and think in a synergised manner.

    A few of the top communications points to convey to prospective talent are:

    Learning Lifestyle
    At AppyHigh, they fail smart and learn fast.

    Their knowledge cafes, learning budgets, and test-and-learn philosophy on the job – all reflect their focus on enabling their people to maximise their knowledge and skillset.

    They also believe that you learn the most when you teach. Employees are encouraged to share their knowledge via blogs relevant to their areas of expertise.

    They empower you to make an impact
    At AppyHigh, you work with a high degree of ownership and autonomy. If you are handling a particular project or role, the canvas is yours to define the problem, identify solutions, choose the ones you think will work and then see them through to execution and measurement. This teaches decision-making and also gives you a direct understanding of the impact your presence has.

    Your individual aspirations matter
    AppyHigh offers its employees not just a career but a career path with ample opportunities for growth, promotions and building a solid relationship with the company. They want them to thrive in all areas of life. They do not track daily attendance or office hours. They are open to flexible schedules. They have adopted a hybrid model where people have the option of working from their homes.

    A great vibe
    Their team comprises people with amazing talents, be it musicians and amateur singers or rappers who have launched multiple tracks, marathon runners, gymnastics and surfing enthusiasts, pet lovers, beer connoisseurs, you name it and they have them all.

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    AppyHigh – Recruitment

    Their recruitment is a mix of freshers and lateral candidates. They look for candidates who are eager to continuously learn and try new things. When it comes to lateral candidates, they look for people who have worked in tech roles with prior experience in product companies, software services, consulting firms, and prominent startups.

    AppyHigh – Business and Revenue Model

    The consumer internet industry works on a three-pronged model.

    Advertising revenue: Given the fact that such products are used on a daily basis by the masses, it’s a great platform for advertisers to reach their desired audience.

    In-app purchases: Subscription services and premium paid features used by users.

    Billion-plus monthly minutes are spent on their platforms that enable everyday personal and work productivity, creativity and personalised entertainment. On the other hand are advertisers that seek the attention of these audiences. They make a significant part of their revenues by bridging this gap via advertising. This, supported by in-app purchases, allows us to generate capital to invest in building better products.

    AppyHigh – Customer Acquisition

    Having launched and scaled 15+ products in just four years, they have established some golden rules. The success of AppyHigh products lies in their playbook – the build, learn-iterate approach, and fail smart and learn fast culture:

    1. Knowing what the user wants: Always keeping a sharp eye on emerging user trends – what are people looking for, what kind of apps or features are they searching for. While doing this, they also create a tech stack to help build the MVP.
    2. Identifying trends and speed to market: Once they identify the opportunity, they ship out the MVP very fast. For instance, AppyHigh was one of the first movers to capitalise on the void created in the app ecosystem when Chinese apps were restricted in India.
    3. Grow organically first to validate the product market fit: In the initial phases of the product, use all the organic growth hacks such as SEO, ASO, content, etc., to drive the mental availability of the product. As more users trickle in, iterate to make the product better. This approach is specifically important and very useful when resources are scarce.
    4. Drive engagement: Once the user base reaches a certain scale, increase the obsession around engagement and retention.
    5. Monetisation and inorganic growth: With product-market-fit in place, monetise your products with minimal disruption of user experience and at the same time start investing in inorganic acquisition channels.

    AppyHigh – Challenges Faced

    AppyHigh has not only survived the pandemic but has almost doubled its business and grown its user base 10x in two years of the pandemic.

    This has been possible by following these principles:

    1. Consistently diversified product portfolio: AppyHigh started in 2018, with 1 app – MessengerGo (an all-in-1 social media messaging app). The first two years were spent on stabilising this product and further, and understanding the major user trends in the app ecosystem. However, from 2020 onwards, AppyHigh undertook a spree of new launches in quick succession.
    2. Instore (a social media tool that lets users auto-generate captions and hashtags for their content and also bookmark their favourite content, launched in January 2020).
    3. AppLockGo (smart and convenient app to lock apps and content on your device, launched in January 2020).
    4. Browser Go (new-age fast and stable web browser, launched in July 2020).
    5. Share Karo India (a fast social sharing app for sharing media, files, documents, etc., launched in July 2020).
    6. Scanner GO (turns a user’s phone into a scanner with a host of AI-powered features, launched in October 2020).
    7. TV Lens: A TV and movie show recommendation platform.

    These new products contribute 85% to AppyHigh’s user base. The impact of continuous innovation and portfolio expansion has been the growth of their revenue from USD 3.5 million in 2019 to USD 8 million in 2021.

    1. Capitalise on market opportunities quickly: AppyHigh was one of the first movers to capitalise on the void created in the app ecosystem when Chinese apps were restricted in India. They were quick to identify the user needs that would go unfulfilled with the Chinese apps pulled out. This led to the launch of three of their leading apps – BrowserGO, Scanner Go and Share Karo India.
    2. Maintain focus on execution: When the pandemic hit in Q1 of 2020, AppyHigh’s new launches and portfolio expansion were already planned. Rather than getting distracted and holding back on investing in building more products and growing the team, they carried on unfazed.
    3. Prioritise sustainable growth: They follow a standard principle – grow the product organically and start monetisation before investing in paid acquisitions. This helps them maintain profitability and cash flows that are then reinvested into making the products better.

    AppyHigh – Growth

    In the last 4 years, AppyHigh has achieved significant business impact:

    • In a short span of 4 years, AppyHigh has revenues of 8.1 mn USD (2021)
    • In the last 2 years, revenues have grown at a CAGR of 45% as of 2021
    • In 4 years, AppyHigh has launched 15+ apps, which together have gathered more than 500mn downloads and have 50 million monthly active users on its ecosystem of apps as of 2021
    • AppyHigh today employs 51 – 200 employees.
    • Company has 550 million plus users engaged in the platform as of October, 2023.

    What makes them proud is that all of this has been done while remaining 100% bootstrapped!

    AppyHigh – Funding

    They have kept AppyHigh bootstrapped till now as they have always believed in building a business that generates profits and cash flows. Most of the initial funding for the startup came from personal savings.

    To grow to one billion users, they are to plan a fund-raising in the near future. They have strong inbound interests from investors. They will definitely associate with partners who understand their vision and operating model and have seen the explosive scaling of similar ecosystems across the globe.

    AppyHigh – Investment

    AppyHigh has done investment in 5 companies.

    Below are the details:

    Company Name Funding Stage Amount Date
    Knocksense Convertible Note $150K Nov 15, 2021
    MobiGarage Seed Round – Jul 12, 2021
    KIWInow Seed Round $250K Jan 5, 2021
    Deyor Seed Round – Mar 15, 2020
    Try & Buy Fashion Seed Round $1 million Jun 22, 2019

    AppyHigh – Competitors

    Their ambition is to build a global consumer internet giant in India. Their apps transcend the entire hierarchy of users’ digital needs. That makes their competition multifold.

    On one hand, they have established players such as Adobe Scan (document scanning), Picsart (photo editing) and Chrome (browser). On the other hand, there are Chinese tech giants such as Bytedance, Inshot and Meitu, which have evolved their own portfolios of widely adopted everyday apps (though some of them are now banned).

    Last but not the least, there are thousands of small individual developers across the globe that make apps in similar categories and vie for users.

    AppyHigh – Tools Used in the Company

    Appyhigh uses a range of tools across functions.

    • On the tech front, Taiga is used for project management.
    • For cloud platforms, AWS, IoFlood, Azure, DigitalOcean, Nvidia Triton and E2E solutions are used.
    • The design team uses Figma, Zeplin and Photoshop. For Product management, the GSuite and Notion come really handy. Strapi and WordPress are used as CMS.
    • The analytics team depends on Firebase, Google Analytics, Clevertap and Jupiter Notebooks.
    • Android Studio, VS Code, Xcode, Elasticsearch, Apache Spark, FastAPI, Celery, Django, rabbitMQ, NodeJs, React, NextJs, GraphQL, and Swagger, are very useful for the development team.
    • They also use Docker, Kubernetes, FastAPI, Apache Airflow, Devtron, Lambda, Jenkins, Github Actions, Ansible, Carpenter, rancher for their operations management, while Prometheus, Grafana, Kibana are used as dashboards.
    • MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, RDS, Redis are the most used databases at AppyHigh.
    • Besides that Wasabi, S3 are used for cloud storage, and Git are used for version control.
    • All internal communications take place on Slack.
    • The HR department uses Zoho People and Payroll.
    • The marketing team employs Firebase and Clevertap to send notifications to the users, while the sensor tower is used for SEO research.

    AppyHigh – Recognition and Achievements

    AppyHigh has been adjudged as one of the Top 10 developers (No.6) headquartered in India by App Annie (now Data.AI) in 2020, among industry behemoths like Times Group, Reliance Industries, and Airtel and ahead of Dailyhunt, Inshorts, and Paytm.

    • It has shown a rise in its monthly active users from 5 to 50 million as of December 2021.
    • AppyHigh won Top Publisher Award in 2021.

    AppyHigh – Future Plans

    Their ambition is to double their user base every year which means that in the next 2 years they want their apps to serve almost 200 million users. By 2026, they aspire to have 1 billion MAUs in their ecosystem.

    Appyhigh has backed almost 75 budding entrepreneurs with pre-seed investments. They include  – Fitso (now acquired by Zomato), Krishify (an agritech startup focused on improving business prospects for farmers and agri-businessmen), MyDukaan (a startup focused on digitisation of the retail landscape in India), EloElo (a live streaming and social gaming platform for creators in India), and many more, One Impression (Integrated influencer marketing network), One code (connecting digital-first brands with sellers). All of these companies have subsequently grown their businesses and undertaken fund-raising with marquee VC investors.

    FAQs

    Who is the founder of AppyHigh?

    Venus Dhuria and Aneesh Rayancha are the co-founders of AppyHigh.

    When was AppyHigh founded?

    AppyHigh was founded in 2018.

    What is the funding of AppyHigh?

    AppyHigh is a bootstrapped company. It has not received any funding yet.

    How many users use AppyHigh?

    There is over 550 million users of AppyHigh.

  • PolicyBazaar – Success Story of the Online Aggregator of Insurance Policies

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.

    It’s recommended to be insured against the contingencies and emergencies of life. The whole idea behind an insurance policy is to financially cope with unforeseen losses. Being insured helps manage risk and cash flow uncertainty. It is also regarded as a good investment channel.

    However, the agents who sell insurance fail to provide options that cover customers completely. They knowingly or unknowingly hide crucial policy-related information from gullible individuals. It has been discovered that on several occasions, these agents sell irrelevant policies just for their benefit and commission rather than prioritizing the customer’s requirements. Thanks to the opacity of the insurance industry, a big chunk of the saver’s funds goes into fattening the agent’s wallet. Due to these factors, customers hesitate to buy insurance from agents.

    Yashish Dahiya founded PolicyBazaar — India’s largest platform for analyzing, comparing, and buying insurance based on price, quality, and other key features — in 2008 to bring transparency and accountability in the Indian insurance policy segment. PolicyBazaar turned unicorn on June 26, 2018, thereby becoming the second Indian unicorn in 2018. Here’s checking out the success story of the leading Indian insurtech company ahead!  

    PolicyBazaar – Company Highlights

    Startup Name PolicyBazaar
    Headquarters Gurugram
    Founder Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal, Manjoy Sharma, Tarun Mathur and Avaneesh Nirjar
    Sector Fintech
    Founded 2008
    Parent Organization EtechAces Marketing and Consulting
    Website policybazaar.com

    PolicyBazaar – About
    PolicyBazaar – Products
    PolicyBazaar – How does it work?
    PolicyBazaar – Industry Details
    PolicyBazaar – Founders and Team
    PolicyBazaar – The Idea and Starting Up
    PolicyBazaar – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    PolicyBazaar – Mission and Vision
    PolicyBazaar – Business Model
    PolicyBazaar – Revenue Model
    PolicyBazaar – Funding and Investors
    PolicyBazaar – Investment
    PolicyBazaar – IPO
    PolicyBazaar – ESOP
    PolicyBazaar – Growth and Revenue
    PolicyBazaar – Challenges
    PolicyBazaar – Acquistion
    PolicyBazaar – Competitors
    PolicyBazaar – Business Partners
    PolicyBazaar – Awards and Recognition
    PolicyBazaar – Future Plans

    What is Policybazaar?

    PolicyBazaar – About

    PolicyBazaar is India’s leading aggregator and marketplace of insurance products. Established in 2008, the company initially compared the prices of insurance policies and provided insurance-related information. The company saw rapid growth and has further expanded on many horizons. Along with being an insurance marketplace, the company further extends assistance for the cancellation/renewal of policies and settling claims now.

    PolicyBazaar – Products

    PolicyBazaar Products
    PolicyBazaar Products

    The main PolicyBazaar products include:

    • Policybazaar car insurance
    • Policybazaar health insurance
    • Policybazaar term insurance
    • Policybazaar investment plan
    • Policybazaar travel insurance
    • Policybazaar 2 wheeler insurance
    • Policybazaar family health insurance
    • Policybazaar saral jeevan bima
    • Policybazaar child savings plan
    • Policybazaar guaranteed return plan
    • Policybazaar retirement plan
    • Policybazaar group health insurance
    • Policybazaar 1 cr health insurance
    • Policybazaar Helpline Number For Cyclone Biparjoy
    • Policybazaar for Business
    • Policybazaar AI-enabled WhatsApp bot

    PolicyBazaar – How does it work?

    PolicyBazaar is the marketplace for all your insurance-related needs. It provides life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, travel insurance, group insurance, etc. The company offers more than 250 insurance plans and around 50 insurance brands on its platform. The platform is designed in such a way that the visitors can easily compare insurance plans and buy the ones relevant to their needs.

    The company constantly adds new features and technology to smoothen the customer experiences. It introduced a ‘My Account‘ feature some time back for the same reason. Through PolicyBazaar’s ‘My Account‘ feature, customers can easily download a policy, raise a ticket, ask for clarification, and upgrade policies. PolicyBazaar also introduced a self-inspection video feature for the revival of lapsed motor insurance.

    PolicyBazaar also adopted Amazon Polly and developed PBee, an in-house AI chatbot, to improve customer satisfaction.

    PolicyBazaar launched its mobile app in 2015. The app is available for both Android and iOS platforms. Customers can not just search, compare, and buy insurance through PolicyBazaar’s app but also take advantage of interesting features such as hospital locator, garage locator, insurance premium calculator, instant renewal of insurance policies, claim assistance, and more.

    PolicyBazaar – Industry Details

    According to NASSCOM, the Fintech market in India is likely to touch US$ 2.4 billion by 2021. The insurance industry in India is likely to touch $280 billion mark by 2021. However, a huge chunk of the Indian population does not own any kind of insurance. Overall insurance penetration, i.e., premium as a percentage of GDP, was only 3.69% in 2017. As such, there still exists a huge under-served market for insurance in India.

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    PolicyBazaar – Founders and Team

    Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal, and Avaneesh Nirjar founded PolicyBazaar in June 2008.

    Policy bazaar founders
    Policybazaar founders

    Yashish Dahiya

    PolicyBazaar founder Yashish Dahiya holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from IIT Delhi (1994), a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad (1996), and an MBA from INSEAD (2001). Just after that, he joined Bain & Company as a consultant. He then became the Managing Director (UK) at ebookers.com. In 2005, he founded First Europa, a Global Online Insurance Broker, where he was responsible for leading its global expansion and managing the business of the company across 9 geographical locations. He is also a national-level swimmer and triathlete.

    Yashish Dahiya, the founder and ex-CEO of PolicyBazaar, is an investor and the founder of paisabazaar.com as well. PaisaBazaar provides fixed deposits and loans at your fingertips.

    Yashish served as the CEO of PolicyBazaar from its inception until February 2020. In February 2020, Sarbvir Singh was appointed as the CEO of PolicyBazaar, while Yashish went to take the responsibility of the CEO of the broader group of PolicyBazaar.

    Sarbvir Singh

    Sarbvir Singh, the PolicyBazaar CEO, served as the Managing Partner at WaterBridge Ventures before joining PolicyBazaar. An alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, Sarbvir has a rich experience of working with companies like Emerson Electric, Citi Bank, HomeShop 18, Network 18, and JP Morgan Private Equity Group. He also co-founded Hercules Capital, a company investing institutional and private client assets in the Indian equity market. Sarbvir left Hercules Capital in 2006.

    Alok Bansal

    PolicyBazaar co-founder and director Alok Bansal is an alumnus of IIM Kolkata. Before PolicyBazaar, he held the positions of finance director at First Europa, senior Manager – Corp Strategy at Mahindra & Mahindra, and business manager at iGate Global Solutions.

    Avaneesh Nirjar

    PolicyBazaar co-founder Avaneesh Nirjar is an Alumni of IIT Kharagpur. He holds an MBA from Birla Institute of Technology. Before PolicyBazaar, he worked for Marico Industries, AT&T India, GE Capital International Services, HeroITES, Cendant ISO, and First Europa.

    Tarun Mathur

    Co-founder and CBO of PolicyBazaar, Tarun Mathur has a BIT from IGNOU, after which he joined HeroITES, worked as a Team Leader in Workforce Management, and a Manager in FE Global Technology before founding PolicyBazaar with the other co-founders in May 2008.

    Manoj Sharma

    Also known as another Co-founder who works as the Director of Finance with PolicyBazaar, Manoj Sharma is an alumnus of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. After having a brief stint with Ericsson Indian Pvt. Ltd., Sharma joined Fiamm Minda Automotive Pvt. Ltd. He eventually joined some more companies including First Europa, and Anand Nishikawa.

    Sharat Dhall

    Sharat Dhall is the COO of PolicyBazaar. Before joining PolicyBazaar, Sharat was the COO at Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd. He was the Business Head at Hindustan Liver Limited, Vice President of e-commerce at Indiatimes.com, Managing Director (India) at Expedia, and Managing Director (India) at TripAdvisor. He is also Advisory Board Member at CreditEnable, a global credit insights and technology solutions company.

    As per LinkedIn data, the PolicyBazaar team consists of around 5,000 employees. As confirmed by PolicyBazaar owner Yashish Dahiya in 2019, PolicyBazaar had plans to create 2,500 new vacancies, leading to a team strength of 6,000 employees. The recruitment will be done majorly for the customer support function of the company.

    PolicyBazaar Shareholding

    The largest owner of the PolicyBazaar shares is Softbank, which holds over 15% of the shares of the Yashish Dahiya and Alok Bansal-founded firm. Makeshift, Infoedge, and Tencent are some of the other major shareholders. The company founder and group CEO Yashish Dahiya also held over 4% of the stocks of PolicyBazaar. Among these, Dahiya opted to sell 37,69,471 equity shares on June 6, 2022. This notification in the BSE filing lead to a sharp crash in the share prices. The PolicyBazaar parent, PB Fintech’s shares tanked by more than 13% following the announcement, as of June 7, 2022. The ownership of Yashish Dahiya of PB Fintech has increased over time, and this may be around 5.98% by October 2022, as per the company’s fillings.

    The shares of Softbank which represented a 2.54 percent stake ownership in the company, were sold in PolicyBazaar parent for an average price of Rs 762.8 per share. The sale was for a total of Rs 871.2 crore as reported on August, 10, 2023.

    PolicyBazaar – The Idea and Starting Up

    The idea for starting PolicyBazaar has its seed sowed in an incident of insurance mis-selling that Yashish Dahiya once faced.

    “I was going through some of the financials with my father and few things looked dubious. On deeper inspection, my father had been cheated of a few lakh rupees by insurance agents. The transactions looked clean on the face of it but the reality emerged when I looked in closely. This got me thinking about how people are getting duped hence came into being PolicyBazaar. We started PolicyBazaar with just 14 hardworking individuals,” said Yashish Dahiya, founder and owner of PolicyBazaar.

    As the platform is a marketplace for insurance policies, it is aptly named PolicyBazaar.

    PolicyBazaar Logo

    The logo of the company depicts the brand name of the company “policybazaar” and has an interesting play on the words. Here the dot com is symbolized with a blue circle inside which is the text “com”. The company has also cleverly included the tagline of the company “Compare.Buy.Save” in its logo.

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    PolicyBazaar – Mission and Vision

    PolicyBazaar’s mission statement on its website says, “Building a safety net for households in India.”

    The vision of PolicyBazaar is to see, “a healthy and well-protected India.”

    PolicyBazaar – Business Model

    PolicyBazaar.com is an insurance aggregator website, which helps the customers research and compares the features of different insurance policies within a category. It enables them to make informed choices when it comes to policy selection. The PolicyBazaar insurance aggregator business model can be seen operating on the B2C and B2B models.

    The company has tied up with insurance brokers to procure information, such as price, benefit, insurance cover, etc., directly from them for customers to compare. Based on the information provided, the customer then chooses the best option. It doesn’t charge customers anything for this service.

    PolicyBazaar – Revenue Model

    PolicyBazaar makes money by generating leads for insurers, advertising, and policy sales. Till 2011, 85% of its revenue came from lead generation and advertising while the rest 15% came from policy sales. Now, 85% of the revenue comes from e-commerce and policy sales.

    PolicyBazaar – Funding and Investors

    PolicyBazaar has raised a total funding of more than $904.9 million in 15 rounds from 33 investors. In the latest round, the company raised around $104.5 million on October 6, 2023. The company is valued at $7.27+ billion in November 2021.

    Date Stage Funding Amount Investor
    October 6, 2023 Post-IPO Secondary $104.5 Million –
    October 4, 2021 – $13.4 Million PB Fintech
    March 17, 2021 Private Equity Round $75 Million Falcon Edge Capital
    March 3, 2021 Secondary Market $45 Million True North & Angel Investors
    November 23, 2020 Secondary Market $20 Million True North
    July 7, 2020 Secondary Market $80 Million Softbank Vision Fund
    July 7, 2020 Series H $50 Million Softbank Vision Fund
    Nov 11, 2019 Series G $150 Million Tencent Holdings
    May 1, 2018 Series F $200 Million Softbank and InfoEdge(India)
    October 13, 2017 Series E $77 Million Temasek, Tiger Global Management, Premji Invest, Info Edge(India) Ltd and other undisclosed investors
    April 15, 2015 Series D $40 Million PremjiInvest, Tiger Global Management, Ribbit Capital, Steadview Capital, ABG Capital.
    May 26, 2014 Series C $20 Million Tiger Global Management
    April 2013 Series B $5 Million Inventus Capital Partners, Info Edge, and Intel Capital.
    March 2013 Series A $4.6 Million Intel Capital and Inventus Capital Partners
    May 2011 Venture Round Undisclosed Intel Capital

    PolicyBazaar – Investment

    Policybazzar has made investments in one company till date.

    Company Name Funding Round Date Amount
    DocPrime Funding Round – DocPrime Sep 17, 2018 $50 million

    PolicyBazaar – IPO

    PolicyBazaar earlier eyed an IPO in the month of August 2021 and had already filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus then with SEBI. According to the filing, the company had reportedly filed to raise around Rs 6017.5 crores. This would include a fresh issue of shares amounting to Rs 3,750 crores. Furthermore, the company would also make an offer for the sale of shares worth Rs 2,267.5 crores by PolicyBazaar’s existing shareholders. The company also said that it might also raise up to Rs 750 crores, as per the latest news, before it goes public.

    However, the IPO was not materialized in August. The company held a meeting on September 24th with the board of directors, who approved allotting 20,20,202 equity shares of Policybazaar Insurance Brokers at a premium price of INR 485 to its parent firm PB Fintech Ltd.

    Though the initial public offering (IPO) of PB Fintech Ltd., the parent company of PolicyBazaar was approved by the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), it had failed to lift the investor sentiments in the unlisted space earlier. Therefore, the share price of PolicyBazaar in the unlisted market was also not changed, remaining around Rs 1,700-1,800, as reported on October 19, 2021.

    The IPO of PolicyBazaar parent, P.B Fintech finally went live on November 1, 2021, and had seen the retail portion 36% subscribed right in the first hour of opening. It closed on November 3, 2021.

    PolicyBazaar IPO price was fixed at Rs 940 to Rs 980 per equity share. The PolicyBazaar IPO saw the company shares gain more than 20% over the IPO price. The stocks of India’s largest digital insurance provider were listed on the BSE at a 17.35% premium to the issue price of Rs 980. The PolicyBazaar stocks were subscribed by 16.59X. The PolicyBazaar stocks closed at Rs 1203 on the NSE, which was 22.74% higher than its IPO price, which valued the company at $7.27 bn, as of November 16, 2021.

    PolicyBazaar – ESOP

    The parent company of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, PB Fintech, has given new options to its workers under its current Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) 2020 and 2021 as per various report news on August 1, 2023.

    According to a stock exchange filing, the business has issued 5,44,929 eligible members stock options at an exercise price of Rs 2 under the PB Fintech Employees Stock Option Scheme 2020 and 2021. The value of the new ESOPs awarded by PB Fintech was estimated by Fintrackr to be roughly Rs 40 crore based on the current stock price of the company.

    PolicyBazaar – Growth and Revenue

    PolicyBazaar is the largest insurance aggregator in India. PolicyBazaar boasts of a 100 million visitors run rate annually and has witnessed a record sale of more than 3,00,000 transactions a month. Here’s a list of the growth highlights of PolicyBazaar:

    • Over 15,000 policies were sold in a month.
    • In the fiscal year 2017-2018, the company recorded a growth of 225% in its revenues
    • After raising $200 Million from SoftBank and Info Edge in May 2018, PolicyBazaar’s valuation reached over $1 billion. Thus, the company became the second fintech company in India to enter the unicorn club after Paytm.
    • It occupied around 50% market share in the online insurance space, which later was increased to 93.4% market share in April 2022
    • It claims to hold 25% of India’s life insurance cover and around 7% of India’s retail health insurance business.
    • Policybazaar car insurance India claims to have already insured 51+ lakh vehicles, which has over 20 insurers to choose from
    • Policybazaar health insurance counts 7 lakh+ happy customers

    DocPrime

    In August 2018, PolicyBazaar launched DocPrime, an online medical service provider platform. DocPrime helps users in getting real-time consultations from doctors online through chat and call. The platform has become quite popular and within six months of operations, DocPrime’s website received 1 million unique visitors.

    Financials

    Policybazaar financials has increased from Rs 1,425 crore in FY22 to Rs 2,558 crore in FY23. Coming to company profit/loss losses increased from Rs 833 in FY22 to Rs 488 crore in FY23.

    Policybazaar - Financials
    Policybazaar – Financials

    Policybazaar Expenses Breakdown

    Company total expenses rises from Rs 2,384 crore in FY22 to Rs 3,304 crore in FY23.

    Below are the expenses details:

    Policybazaar Expenses FY22 FY23
    Employee Benefits Rs 1,255 crore Rs 1,539 crore
    Advertising and promotions Rs 864 crore Rs 1,357 crore
    Network and Internet Rs 69.5 crore Rs 96.8 crore
    Other Expenses Rs 194.5 crore Rs 311.2 crore

    EBITDA

    The financial performance of Policybazaar increased dramatically between FY22 and FY23, and its EBITDA margin decreased from -50.10% in FY22 to -14.30% in FY23. Cost effectiveness, which saw a drop in expenses per unit of operational revenue, and a rise in ROCE from -14.69% in FY22 to -8.18% in FY23 both contributed to this increase. Overall, these trends point to a significant financial turnaround for the business.

    Policybazaar FY22-FY23 FY22 FY23
    EBITDA Margin -50.10% -14.30%
    Expense/Rs of Operation Revenue Rs 1.67 Rs 1.29
    ROCE -14.69% -8.18%

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    PolicyBazaar – Challenges

    According to PolicyBazaar Marketing Head Sai Narayan, customer inertia is one of the biggest challenges. People still have the habit of buying insurance from agents. It takes effort to convince this category of people to buy insurance online.

    According to Narayan, the other challenge is that most Indians view insurance just as a tax saving tool. They fail to see the bigger picture that insurance means much more than just tax saving. As such, most insurance sales happen in January-March.

    Policybazaar Systems Hacked

    Policybazaar systems were hacked and the insurtech major revealed that it identified some vulnerabilities for Policybazaar Insurance Brokers (“Policybazaar’’) IT systems and more, which were “subject to illegal and unauthorized access.” However, it added that these attacks didn’t compromise significant customer data, as per reports dated July 25, 2022. Besides, Policybazaar also added that the vulnerabilities that it identified were sorted out, and it has also sanctioned an audit to clearly identify the damage done. The company also mentioned that it has already reached out to appropriate authorities in relation to the attack.  

    PolicyBazaar – Acquistion

    PolicyBazaar has acquired Visit Internet Services on January 15, 2022.

    Company Name Date Amount
    Visit Internet Services January 15, 2022 Rs 22.4 crore

    PolicyBazaar – Competitors

    PolicyBazaar’s major competitors are:

    PolicyBazaar – Business Partners

    The startup has reputed companies from car insurance, health insurance, life insurance, corporate insurance, and the travel insurance sectors as its business partners.

    Aegon Life, Aviva Life Insurance, Bajaj Allianz, Cigna, Edelweiss Tokio Life, HDFC Ergo, DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance, HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential, Liberty General Insurance, Cholamandalam General Insurance, PNB Metlife, Max Life, Royal Sundaram General Insurance, SBI Life Insurance, TATA AIG, Future Generali, IFFCO-TOKIO General Insurance, Apollo Munich Health Insurance, Religare Health Insurance, Start Health, and Allied Insurance, and IDBI Federal Life Insurance are some of the partners of PolicyBazaar.

    Some other partners include Reliance Life Insurance, Aditya Birla Capital, TATA AIA Life, Shriram Life/ General Insurance, Bharti AXA, National Insurance, New India Assurance, Universal Sompo General Insurance, Reliance General Insurance, Bajaj Allianz, Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance, Max Bupa, Oriental insurance, Raheja QBE, SBI General Insurance, and United India Insurance.

    In order to satisfy clients’ dual needs of financial security and wealth creation, Bharti AXA Life Insurance partners with PolicyBazaar on September 23, 2023 to develop Wealth Maximizer, an industry-first ULIP plan.

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    PolicyBazaar – Awards and Recognition

    The company has received many awards and has been recognized for its business model, customer centricity, and marketing efforts. It has won the following awards:

    • IAMAI Indian Digital Awards for the best financial website – 2013-2014
    • Frost and Sullivan Customer Value Leadership Award – 2014
    • Award for Best Mobile App Consumer Finance by GSF Mobile Appies – 2015
    • Exchange4media Golden Mikes Award – 2015
    • DMAi Asia ECHO Awards – 2015
    • CMO Asia Awards – 2015
    • BAM Award – 2015
    • Iconic IDC Insight Awards – 2015
    • Exchange4media BFSI Marketing Awards -2023

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    PolicyBazaar – Future Plans

    PolicyBazaar future plans include standing to its market leadership among the other insurtech companies. It looks to further increase the underwriting premium, expand its unique customer base, increase revenue, look towards profitability, innovate new products and technology for better customer satisfaction, and expand successfully outside India in the upcoming years.

    FAQs

    What is PolicyBazaar?

    Policybazaar is a one-stop online destination for all types of insurance products. It holds experience and expertise in insurance to help customers choose the best insurance policies.

    What is PolicyBazaar’s valuation?

    PolicyBazaar is currently valued at $7.27 billion, as of November 2021.

    Who is the CEO of PolicyBazaar?

    Sarbvir Singh is the CEO of Policybazaar.

    How much is PolicyBazaar’s revenue?

    The company has recorded its revenues at Rs 957 crore in FY21.

    Who are the top competitors of PolicyBazaar?

    The top 10 competitors in PolicyBazaar’s competitive set are:

    • BankBazaar
    • Coverfox
    • Easypolicy
    • Acko
    • Turtlemint
    • ETInsure
    • Greenlife Insurance
    • CreditMantri
    • FundsIndia
    • ApnaLoanBazaar

    What is the Policybazaar car insurance India?

    Policybazaar offers car insurance in India, which is designed as a mandatory policy that covers the cost of damages caused to cars in case of unpredictable events like theft, collision and more. The Policybazaar car insurance India has over 20 car insurers to choose from and has already insured over 51 lakh vehicles.  

    How is Policybazaar health insurance?

    The Policybazaar health insurance is an insurance plan of PolicyBazaar that acts as a contract between the insurance company and the insurer for a premium amount, which covers the medical expenses associated with the hospitalisation, surgeries, daycare visits, and more. Such healthcare insurance will either reimburse the medical costs or offer cashless treatments.  

    What does the travel insurance of Policybazaar offer?

    The travel insurance of Policybazaar protects the users from any unexpected losses while travelling in domestic or internationally. The basic plans of the PolicyBazaar travel insurance covers the medical expenses, while there are other comprehensive plans that also cover for flight delays, luggage lost, personal liability, cancellation of trips, and more.

  • Michael Bloomberg’s Remarkable Journey: Inspiring Life and Legacy

    Amid the towering buildings and bustling streets of the big city, there’s a guy named Michael Bloomberg. He’s not just your average success story – he’s the brain behind the big changes in business and politics.

    Born in Boston in 1942, Bloomberg didn’t start with a silver spoon. He was hungry for knowledge and had a knack for seeing what others couldn’t. His journey took him from the busy trading floors & dingy office spaces to the high-powered world of finance. But he didn’t do things the usual way. He brought a corporate touch to City Hall, leaving a lasting impact on the city we all know and love.

    So, let’s dive into the life of Michael Bloomberg – a man whose story is written in the city skyline, who made a mark on Wall Street, and whose influence reaches into both the powerful rooms of politics and the caring side of making the world a better place.

    Michael Bloomberg – Biography

    Name Michael Rubens Bloomberg
    Birthplace Boston, Massachusetts
    Born February 14, 1942
    Nationality American
    Education Electrical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, MBA at Harvard Business School
    Position Founder, Bloomberg L.P.
    Net worth $96.3 billion
    Website Mikebloomberg.com

    Michael Bloomberg – Early Life
    Michael Bloomberg – Career
    Michael Bloomberg – Personal Life
    Michael Bloomberg – Company Name
    Michael Bloomberg – Partner Investments
    Michael Bloomberg – Philanthropy
    Michael Bloomberg – Welfare-oriented Activities
    Michael Bloomberg – Awards and Recognitions
    Michael Bloomberg – Interesting Fact

    Michael Bloomberg – Early Life

    Michael Bloomberg’s journey began on February 14, 1942, in the vibrant city of Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up in the middle-class neighborhood of Medford, he was the son of a bookkeeper and a real estate agent, William Henry Bloomberg.

    Bloomberg’s early life was marked by a curiosity that set him apart; This curiosity, combined with a natural aptitude for numbers, hinted at the future financial wizard he would become.

    After graduating from Medford High School, Bloomberg took a significant step toward his future success by enrolling at Johns Hopkins University. His time at Hopkins was characterized by a relentless pursuit of knowledge, majoring in Electrical Engineering.

    After college, he attended Harvard Business School and in 1966, was hired by a Wall Street firm, Salomon Brothers.

    Michael Bloomberg – Career

    Michael Bloomberg’s illustrious career kicked off in the early 1960s when he joined Salomon Brothers, an investment bank. His initial role was far from glamorous – he started as a lowly entry-level employee.

    However, Bloomberg’s innate knack for innovation soon came to the forefront. He recognized the potential of computerized data systems in finance and developed a groundbreaking system that provided real-time market information.

    Unfortunately, when Salomon Brothers was acquired in 1981, Bloomberg was let go, but this setback fueled his entrepreneurial spirit.

    In 1981, armed with a vision and determination, Bloomberg founded Bloomberg L.P. (formerly Innovative Market Systems), a financial data services company. What began as a startup housed in a single room soon transformed into a global giant, revolutionizing how financial professionals accessed and analyzed market information.

    In 1982, The Bloomberg Terminal, a proprietary software platform, became an indispensable tool on trading floors worldwide.

    Beyond finance, the company expanded into media, technology, and various philanthropic initiatives.

    Later in the 90s, he co-founded Bloomberg News and launched Bloomberg television.

    In 2001, just weeks after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Bloomberg’s career trajectory took an unexpected turn when he entered the political arena, winning the mayoral election in New York City.

    After three terms in office in 2001, 2005, and 2009, Bloomberg returned to his business ventures and continued his philanthropic efforts.

    Today, his legacy is multifaceted – from reshaping Wall Street to influencing urban governance and beyond, Michael Bloomberg remains a dynamic force in business and public service.

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    Michael Bloomberg – Personal Life

    With Jewish ancestry, Michael Bloomberg was born to Charlotte (Rubens) and William Henry Bloomberg.

    He was married to Susan Meyer in 1976 and divorced in 1993. He has two daughters, Georgina Bloomberg and Emma Bloomberg.

    Reportedly, Diana Taylor, a former Wall Street executive and former New York State Superintendent of Banks has been his companion for over 20 years.

    He takes a keen interest in public welfare, climate change, and other philanthropic activities.

    Michael Bloomberg – Company Name

    Bloomberg L.P., a provider of media and financial information, was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981. He provided the seed funding for the company and currently holds 88% of its projected $12 billion in annual revenues.

    The company has more than 15000 employees & is spread around 73 countries worldwide.

    Michael Bloomberg – Partner Investments

    Michael Bloomberg has made one partner investment along with Qatar Investment Authority. Below are the details of the investment:

    Announced Date Organization Name Investor Name Lead Investor Funding Round Money Raised
    December 1, 2021 Travelling Folks Qatar Investment Authority Yes Pre-seed Round ₹2.3 million

    Michael Bloomberg – Philanthropy

    As much as Michael Bloomberg is known for his business and political journey, he is equally known for his big-hearted philanthropy.

    • He is the founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies which focuses on five main areas for change: public health, environment, education, government innovation, and arts & culture.
    • He has also donated more than $14.4 billion to gun control, climate change, and other causes.
    • He has promised to donate Bloomberg Philanthropies his share of Bloomberg L.P. when he passes away, if not before.
    • In addition to the $1.5 billion he had already donated to Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg pledged $1.8 billion to the institution in 2018 to help the students.
    • He began several initiatives to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, including providing $40 million to support low and middle-income nations in their attempts to stop the disease’s spread.

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    Michael Bloomberg – Welfare-oriented Activities

    One of the most outspoken and persuasive voices in America on vital issues, such as climate change, gun violence, and public health, Bloomberg is a very active participant in social causes.

    He also holds the following responsibilities:

    • Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries
    • UN​FCCC Global Ambassador for the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience
    • Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions
    • The chair of the Defence Innovation Board

    Michael Bloomberg – Awards and Recognitions

    • He was listed in the 10th place in Forbes The 400 Richest People In America 2023
    • Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 and 2008 in Time 100
    • In 2010, Vanity Fair ranked Bloomberg #7 in its “Vanity Fair 100” list of influential figures

    Michael Bloomberg – Interesting Fact

    Michael Bloomberg earned his pilot’s license in 1976, and can often be spotted flying his helicopter around the city.

    FAQs

    What is Bloomberg L.P. about?

    Bloomberg L.P., a provider of media and financial information, was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981.

    How much share does Michael Bloomberg hold in Bloomberg L.P.?

    Michael Bloomberg provided the seed funding for the company and currently holds 88% of its projected $12 billion in annual revenues.

    Who is the current CEO of Bloomberg L.P.?

    Vlad Kliatchko was appointed as the CEO of Bloomberg L.P. in 2023.

  • 15 Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress That Work in 2023

    Targeted pop-up increases the conversion by 5 to 10% and when it comes to Exit overlay, the conversion rate increases more as it targets the remaining 90% of abandoning visitors. Exit-intent popup showcases the ad content to the forefront for visitors’ attention before they leave the website or the check-out process. Exit-intent popup plugins are incredibly effective in capturing leads, reducing cart abandonment, increasing user experience, and boosting email listings.

    WordPress exit intent popup plugins are the most popular and effective way to improve engagement and win back site visitors.

    How to choose WordPress Popup Plugins?
    Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins For WordPress:

    How to choose WordPress Popup Plugins?

    WordPress popup plugins have pre-designed templates to make your job easy.  They have a user-friendly interface and a range of interactive display options that attract visitors on all devices. You can create different types of popups, modal windows, and content overlays with different trigger settings to display popups.

    An exit-intent popup plugin provides you with the right tools to quickly create exit popups to boost conversion, win over abandoning visitors, increase email subscriptions, and turn them into paying customers.

    Evaluate popular WordPress popup plugins‘ capability and ensure their behavior interaction, targeting, and personalization features to enrich users’ experiences. Also, it is crucial for the plugin to provide detailed analytics to check its impact on sales and conversions.

    Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins For WordPress:

    OptinMonster

    Name OptinMonster
    Rating 4.2 of 5
    Free plan Not Available
    Best for Lead Generation and Email capture

    OptinMonster - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    OptinMonster – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    OptinMonster is a powerful WordPress popup builder for lead generation and email capture. You can set different triggers and schedules according to targeted campaigns for different pages/sections, geographical locations, traffic sources, or devices. It can also integrate with popular email marketing services. The wide range of customizable popup templates helps you to create personalized forms in diverse styles and functions. Various premium templates allow you to create campaign trigger popups with full-screen welcome mats, floating bar, page scrolling, and time-based trigger features.

    The easy drag-and-drop features to design pop-up campaigns allow you to design your popups by adding a background, color, images, and fonts for simple setup and customization. The advanced options allow extensive customization by using diverse elements such as video, images, HTML, and animations in the campaigns. It captures leads and converts abandoning visitors into subscribers and customers.

    Pricing: OptinMonster price ranges from $9 – $49 per month. You can use the basic plan with all the basic tools through the OptinMonster WordPress plugin.

    Plans Basic Plus Pro Growth
    Pricing $9/month $19/month $29/month $49/month

    TrustPulse

    Name TrustPulse
    Rating –
    Free plan Not Available
    Best for FOMO popup effect

    TrustPulse - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    TrustPulse – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    TrustPulse is a social-proof popup notification that enhances your email lists and boosts conversions and sales.  It is a popular plugin for WordPress used by business sites. It creates a FOMO (fear of missing out) popup effect and encourages more customers to email subscriptions and purchases. It is a SaaS app and works seamlessly with all popular website platforms including WordPress, Squarespace, Drupal, Shopify, and others. It displays real users’ activities and instantly creates a feeling of urgency to conversions or email subscriptions in site visitors.

    There are plenty of social proof plugins for WordPress that create fake social proof reviews and notifications. Users can easily notice them and then it will seriously impact the credibility and sales of a business. TrustPulse captures real-time purchases, downloads, and registrations on the site and then shows real-time purchases, activity, and signups.

    Apart from displaying sales notifications, you can also run multiple campaigns to display different kinds of activity on your site. You can redirect visitors to the signup page, and feedback page, or direct them to the product page. TrustPulse popup notification has proven a 15% boost in conversion rates.

    Pricing: TrustPulse offers various plans. The basic plan starts from $5/month to $39/month.

    Plans Basic Plus Pro Growth
    Pricing $5/month $10/month $19/month $39/month

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    HubSpot

    Name HubSpot
    Rating 4.4 of 5
    Free plan Available
    Best for CRM tracker

    HubSpot - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    HubSpot – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    HubSpot provides a comprehensive set of marketing tools that create popups, live chats, analytics, and forms to attract, engage, and delight customers. Its intuitive, easy-to-use drag-and-drop feature and user-friendly interface create forms and popups effortlessly. You can seamlessly integrate existing forms with the HubSpot CRM and track and manage email interaction, pages visited, chat conversations, form submissions, etc with your website. The diverse range of pre-built templates offers designer forms based on user behavior.

    Pricing: The HubSpot WordPress plugin is free; the paid plan starts at $18/month. It provides essential marketing tools to engage and convert leads whereas,  the professional plan provides Comprehensive marketing software for automation, reporting, and campaigns.

    Plans Free tools Starter Professional
    Pricing $0/month $18/month $800/month

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    Icegram

    Name Icegram
    Rating 2.5 of 5
    Free plan Available
    Best for Easy integration with Email Marketing

    Icegram - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Icegram – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Icegram helps you to create opt-in forms, call-to-action buttons, and email options to target customers and grow your email list efficiently. Icegram popup plugin lets you create diverse popup forms in varied styles for displaying them on different pages of your website. This plugin provides multiple targeting options such as page-level targeting, time-based targeting, user-based targeting, and device-based targeting and increases your conversions. It can easily integrate with email marketing services like MailChimp, AWeber, ConstantContact, CampaignMonitor, iContact, etc. You can create different popups, opt-in forms, notification bars, subscription forms, slide-ins, etc.

    Pricing: Icegram’s basic plan is free for users but premium add-ons cost a minimum of $129 per year.

    Plans Starter Pro Max
    Pricing $0/year $129/year $229/year

    Bloom

    Name Bloom
    Rating 4.6 of 5
    Free plan Not Available
    Best for Elegant Themes

    Bloom - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Bloom – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Bloom is a popular WordPress popup plugin from Elegant Themes (the oldest WordPress theme shop). Using Bloom, you can easily create beautiful popup forms on your WordPress dashboard, itself. It provides 100 customizable built-in templates and a simple drag-and-drop popup maker to create a huge range of design and trigger features. However, too many options also make the user interface confusing. It does offer an exit-intent popup so the targeting has only basic features.

    Pricing: Elegant Themes membership starts at $89 a year. The users can also go for lifetime access by paying $249.

    Plans Yearly access Lifetime access
    Pricing $89/year $249 1-time

    Sumo

    Name Sumo
    Rating 4.1 of 5
    Free plan Available
    Best for Reduce cart abandonment

    Sumo - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Sumo – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Sumo is a free popup plugin for WordPress that allows you to add more popups, a marketing tool kit, shortcuts for e-commerce, and an ROI-focused dashboard to your website. Its exit-intent popups help site owners collect more emails and reduce cart abandonment. It has different styles and templates that allow you to change images, texts, button colors, background colors, etc. The basic A/B tracking feature sees the analytics of pop-up conversions. A free version is available with notification bars across the site.

    Pricing: Sumo offers a basic free plan and additional features cost $39/month.

    Plans Free Pro
    Pricing $0/month $39/month

    Hustle

    Name Hustle
    Rating 4.5 of 5
    Free plan 21-day free trial
    Best for Lead generation

    Hustle - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Hustle – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Hustle is an email marketing and lead generation plugin for WordPress. There are several customizable design templates with floating social bars, popups, email opt-ins, and slide-in features to personalize your marketing efforts according to the campaigns. An advanced behavioral targeting system sets different triggers and schedules according to your marketing strategy and helps increase conversions on your site. It can integrate with popular form builder plugins and create opt-in forms, call-to-actions, and popup forms in multiple styles to maximize results.

    Pricing: Hustle offers a 21-day free trial; pricing starts from $3 after the trial.

    Plans Hustle Pro
    Pricing $3/month

    Name Popup Maker
    Rating 4.6 of 5
    Free plan Not Available
    Best for Email opt-ins, lightbox popups

    Popup Maker - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Popup Maker – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Popup Maker is a free WordPress plugin offering email opt-ins, lightbox popups, slide-in popups, sticky popups, notification popups, WooCommerce upsells, and cross-sell popups. Diverse elements can be included in the popups such as videos, images, or HTML elements, individually or in combination with each other. However, you must upgrade to a premium plan to use integration and triggering features.

    Pricing: Popup Maker offers three pricing plans ranging from $87/year to $247/year. The starter plan provides only one site usage whereas the latter plans provide three and five sites usage respectively.

    Plans Start Grow Optimize
    Pricing $87/year $147/year $247/year

    Thrive Leads

    Name Thrive Leads
    Rating 4.5 of 5
    Free plan Not Available
    Best for Lead generation and email building

    Thrive Leads - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Thrive Leads – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Thrive Leads is a website popup plugin for lead generation and email list-building. The easy-to-use popup builder has multiple opt-in types such as lightbox popup, inline forms, 2-step opt-in, scroll map, slide-in forms, and customizable signup forms. You can display your WordPress exit-intent popup based on categories, tags, post types, and more.

    Pricing: It offers only one pricing plan:

    Plans Thrive Suite
    Pricing $299/year

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    ConvertPlus

    Name ConvertPlus
    Rating 4.6 of 5
    Free plan Not Available
    Best for List building

    ConvertPlus - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    ConvertPlus – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    ConvertPlus is a user-friendly and straightforward list-building WordPress plugin.  You can create effective opt-in forms with the help of a wide range of features and easy customization options available in the ConvertPlus plugin. Many trigger features, modal popups, slide-ins, info bars, widget areas, footer, page or post content, etc, are available with easy customization and integration. The huge library of templates is highly customizable which helps you to generate more leads and more email subscribers.

    Pricing: This beautiful list-building plugin comes at an affordable price of $23 for 6 months.

    Plans ConvertPlus
    Pricing $23/half yearly

    Elementor Pro

    Name Elementor Pro
    Rating 4.6 of 5
    Free plan Not Available
    Best for drag-and-drop page builder

    Elementor Pro - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Elementor Pro – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Elementor Pro is a popular drag-and-drop WordPress page builder. It includes many popup types such as classic, fly-in, bottom bar, full screen, hello bar, and slide-in. It gives the flexibility to customize popups by including images, posts, WooCommerce products, and ACF custom fields according to size, position, behavior, and more. You can use Elementor’s variety of widgets and design features to set up popup templates. However, it lacks A/B testing and analytics tracking.

    Pricing: Elementor Pro offers three pricing plans ranging from $59/yearly to $399/yearly.

    Plans Essential Plan Expert Plan Agency Plan
    Pricing $59/yearly $199/yearly $399/yearly

    Yeloni

    Name Yeloni
    Rating –
    Free plan Available
    Best for scroll tracking and floating buttons

    Yeloni - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Yeloni – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Yeloni is a free exit intent popup plugin that converts abandoning visitors into subscribers using exit intent, scroll tracking, floating buttons, page-level targeting & custom designs. You can show email signup forms, social buttons, and offers, in a non-intrusive manner, when the visitor navigates your website. This plugin allows you to integrate with email marketing services including MailChimp, Aweber, ActiveCampaign, and Sendy.

    Pricing: You can use limited features in a free plugin or pay an additional fee for the premium version.

    Plans Free Plan Business Plan Business Plan
    Pricing $0/month $9/month $99/yearly

    OptiMonk

    Name OptiMonk
    Rating 4.8 of 5
    Free plan Available
    Best for Customizing messages

    Optimonk - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Optimonk – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Optimonk is a WordPress exit-intent popup plugin that enables you to capture subscribers, reduce cart abandonment, and boost conversions. You can customize your messages based on behavioral targeting and display the message to the right audiences at the right time. You can set up various targeting messages such as time-based, scroll-based, and exit intent-based, and edit your popup in drag-and-drop editor. It allows free integration with MailChimp, iContact, GetResponse, InfusionSoft, AWeber, etc. Professional plans start from $29/m for a yearly subscription.

    Pricing: This plugin offers a variety of pricing plans catering to the different needs of their users:

    Plans Free Essential Growth Premium Master
    Pricing $0/month $39/month $99/month $249/month Custom made plan

    Ninja Popup

    Name Ninja Popup
    Rating –
    Free plan Not Available
    Best for Control the design and performance of popups

    Ninja Popup - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    Ninja Popup – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    Ninja Popup is a popular and professionally designed WordPress plugin that allows you to control the design and performance elements of your popups. You can increase your email listing through newsletter subscription, offering discounts/coupons, and locking content until they are shared. It has email marketing integrations with MailChimp, GetResponse, InfusionSoft, JetPack, ConvertKit, and many more. You can create custom popup opt-ins on your mailing list and bring high-quality leads.

    Pricing: A one-time fee is $24; for additional features, an extra fee has to be paid.

    Plans Lifetime
    Pricing $24+taxes

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    MailOptin

    Name MailOptin
    Rating 3.7 of 5
    Free Plan Not Available
    Best for Event-triggered emails

    MailOptin - Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress
    MailOptin – Best Exit-Intent Popup Plugins for WordPress

    MailOptin allows you to display targeted messages with popups, slide-ins, top bars, before/after subscription forms, and sidebar widget opt-in forms. It has email marketing integrations with MailChimp, GetResponse, InfusionSoft, JetPack, ConvertKit, and many more. It sends event-triggered emails about new blog post notifications to your audiences and keeps them engaged. It grows your mailing list, lead generation, automation, and conversion.

    Pricing: They offer three different pricing plans:

    Plans Standard Pro Agency
    Pricing $99/year $249/year $499/year

    Conclusion

    Popups are an effective way to get more subscribers and boost sales. WordPress popup plugin includes many free templates, a drag-and-drop editor, powerful page-level targeting options, personalization, and event-based triggers that help you grow your email list and conversions.

    Get started with the free WordPress exit intent popup and then gradually switch to a premium popup solution.

    FAQs

    Are website popups a good idea?

    While pop-up windows on websites can be an excellent tool for engaging visitors, if they are invasive and irritating, they also risk creating a strong negative reaction.

    What is the best popup plugin for WordPress?

    OptinMonster, TrustPulse, Thrive Leads, Bloom, and Sump are the best popup plugins for WordPress.

    How many plugins are good for WordPress?

    A commercial website often has between 20 and 30 plugins, on average. If you’re utilizing WordPress to its fullest extent and have a lot of complex features, this number might easily reach 50 or more.

    Do plugins slow down WordPress?

    Sometimes they might slow down your website. Therefore, it is recommended to use a plugin performance profiler to monitor them.  

  • BigHit Pioneering Talent Discovery in Indian Sports

    In a recent interaction Mr. Shaktie Prakash, the Founder and CEO of BigHit, and Mr. Vinit Kore, Co-founder and CBO of BigHit, shed light on their ambitious vision for transforming the Indian sports industry. During the conversation with StartupTalky, the founders shared insights into BigHit’s business model, its role in addressing industry challenges, and its impact on the Indian sports economy.

    Can you tell us more about BigHit’s business model and how it generates revenue?

    Mr. Prakash: BigHit initially began with the idea of creating a platform for all sportspeople to establish their identity. When I mention “identity,” I am referring to the fact that in various aspects of professional life, there is typically a platform that defines individuals and makes it easy for everyone to locate them. For instance, LinkedIn serves this purpose for careers.

    However, if we consider sportspeople, there is not a centralized source of information readily available for everyone to access. Much of the available information is either incomplete or scattered all over the place. This is where the concept of starting BigHit originated – to establish a platform that would provide sportspeople with an identity and make it effortless for everyone to learn about them. That is how BigHit began.

    Naturally, we went through various changes and pivots, expanding into numerous other areas, but the core idea remained centered on sportspeople. At present, we are a combination of an online platform and a strong physical presence in various sports-related activities.

    Mr. Kore: Our company is currently focused on two major sports: football and MMA. We see a growing interest in football in our country, and we believe it will continue to rise, both in terms of audience engagement and the emergence of young Indian talent on the international stage.

    To achieve this, we initiated a partnership with Bayern Munich, becoming the only Indian company with such a regional partnership. Our goal is to create opportunities for young Indian footballers to compete at the international level and get scouted not only for Bayern’s pro squad but also for global and Bundesliga clubs.

    Mr. Prakash: To put it simply, what we are doing, as you mentioned, is clarifying what Big Hit is all about. As I mentioned before, it is a platform designed for getting noticed and scouted. It serves as a hub for connecting with people. Just as you mentioned, it should be the primary destination for anyone seeking players or looking to scout talent.

    We have taken this concept even further in two sports by creating a scouting network, even in a physical format. This is where our partnerships with Bayern Munich, Bundesliga, and several other potential partnerships come into play. In short, we are on our way to becoming the equivalent of LinkedIn for the world of sports.

    Mr. Kore: To add to this point, we have also implemented a game management system within the application. Currently, we have approximately 22 primary partners in the Indian sports landscape, primarily national sporting federations. Many of these federations are still using manual pen-and-paper methods or third-party applications to manage their fixtures.

    What we have introduced in our application empowers these partners, federations, and associations to seamlessly host their state and national ranking events. Our platform handles player registration, weight category distribution, age category distribution, and gender categorization, all with just a click of a button, resulting in instant fixture generation. Real-time scoring is also available, allowing for updates and highlights.

    This functionality helps these federations create a lasting legacy. For example, if the MMA National Championships occurred last year, our application ensures that the consolidated information is readily available for future reference.

    Currently, we have a pipeline of sports, including MMA, weightlifting, and judo, all poised to adopt our application. Some have already begun, while others are in the process of incorporating our platform exclusively for hosting state-ranking and national-ranking events—the exclusive domain of the Wicked app.

    You mentioned having a mix of both on-ground and online activities. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors, if there are any, in the Indian market?

    Mr. Prakash: We are operating in a rather niche space. When we consider direct competitors, to the best of our knowledge, there is not a company doing exactly what we do, not just in India but anywhere worldwide. In the space where we operate, there are several other sports applications. Most of them are streaming applications, but that is not our primary focus. In fact, we collaborate with some of these streaming applications to enhance the experience for our intellectual properties (IPs).

    However, when it comes to a company that is dedicated to building a comprehensive repository of all players in one place, we are not aware of any such entity.

    In a way, it can be described as a platform for connecting coaches, players, federations, and scouts. Could it be termed as the LinkedIn for sportspeople?

    Mr. Prakash:  Absolutely on point. So essentially, we are a platform for sportspeople, coaches, sponsors, and those in search of the best coaches. If, for example, you’re a talented footballer and I want my friend to undergo similar training, I can visit your profile, review your tournament history, assess your stats from various competitions, find out who your coach is, discover your past coaches, identify the clubs you’ve represented, determine your playing region, and even see the opponents you’ve faced. This kind of information provides me with a roadmap.

    When I see your profile and observe your impressive achievements, it makes me think that there is something special about your training methods or the club you are a part of. I might want to emulate your journey, much like how I use LinkedIn to examine people’s qualifications and the courses they have taken, helping me decide if I want to follow a similar path or not.

    What do you believe are the biggest challenges facing the sports industry today, and how is BigHit helping to address these challenges? You mentioned that this platform facilitates connections, scouting, and access to various tutorials and sessions. How does it tackle the challenges existing in the sports industry?

    Mr. Prakash: The most significant issue in the sports industry, particularly in India, is the absence of a well-defined pathway. If you are a player not involved in cricket, your career options often appear limited, with many eventually pursuing government positions. The likelihood of getting noticed by a sponsor or achieving top-tier success in your sport is exceedingly slim. I am not suggesting that opportunities are entirely absent; indeed, organizations like General Sports and JSW are doing exceptional work. They have initiated a foundation that is engaged in remarkable initiatives. However, many individuals remain unaware of these initiatives and how to access them.

    Furthermore, these foundations typically have a localized physical presence, which confines their outreach to specific geographical areas. Conversely, our approach is that if I am situated in Mumbai and identify a promising talent in a remote village of Odisha, it would be logical for me to conduct a more comprehensive assessment. However, without a platform for initial discovery, the prospects of formulating a development roadmap for such talent are virtually nonexistent.

    Our efforts are geared towards complementing the ongoing initiatives within this field. Our objective is to collaborate with and consolidate all these initiatives onto a single platform, enhancing their overall effectiveness. So, essentially, our mission revolves around addressing the challenge of talent discovery. That is our primary aim, in a nutshell.

    Since you mentioned the discovery of talent, could you share some of the most successful stories of players, coaches, clubs, and federations that have used the BigHit app? For instance, you mentioned Bayern Munich and players who reached the pro division. Do you have any more success stories to share with us?

    Mr. Prakash: We are a relatively young company, having been in operation for just one and a half years. We opened to the public about six months ago. Currently, our standout success story centers around what Vinit mentioned—the Bayern Youth Cup. Despite being a startup and operating on a bootstrap budget, we have achieved the remarkable status of becoming a regional partner for FC Bayern Munich, a globally renowned top-tier club.

    Additionally, we organized an under-16 youth tournament that spanned across India, involving ten states, and attracting over 15,000 athletes. This effectively made it one of the largest tournaments, not just in India but potentially in all of Asia. The Bayern Youth Cup, which is the world’s most significant global tournament for the under-16 category, typically has a combined strength from the rest of the world that is less than what we achieved in India.

    The tournament saw the participation of 16 teams and 250 players. We successfully scouted ten players for further opportunities. In this endeavor, we had the presence of Bayern scouts, Bayern legends, and Bayern officials in Goa. They worked in collaboration with our head scout, an ex-footballer from the Indian football team, who is also a Padma Shri awardee and an Arjuna awardee.

    Collectively, we identified ten talented youngsters, not necessarily from the winning team, and are in the process of forming them into a cohesive unit. We will provide them with specialized training and take them to Munich, where they will have the chance to showcase their skills in front of scouts from Bayern and other neighboring clubs. They will be competing against teams from about eight or nine other countries, a level of exposure that is truly remarkable, especially at the under-16 level.

    While it may not yet qualify as a full-fledged success story, I see it as a significant initial step toward achieving our broader objectives. It serves as a foundational achievement from which we can continue to build and grow.

    What are your growth plans for BigHit? How do you plan to scale up and reach more users?

    Mr. Prakash: So, as we mentioned, our core focus is on two sports, football, and MMA. However, we have also partnered with over 21 federations, including not only football associations but also ones like underwater swimming. We collaborate with various NGOs dedicated to grassroots development. We are working towards promoting grassroots sports in conjunction with the Sports Authority of India. We had the opportunity to meet with the Honorable Sports Minister, Mr. Anurag Thakur, to share our ideas, and he expressed excitement about our initiatives. We have been in discussions with the Sports Ministry for some time now, exploring opportunities for collaboration.

    As I mentioned earlier, Bayern Munich is our regional partner, and we are in the process of establishing several other regional partnerships. We are also working on multiple IPs related to football to provide our young talents with greater exposure at an early stage. This approach not only includes offering a digital scouting platform but also creating opportunities for talented kids from all over India to participate in live events watched by top scouts. This, we believe, is the direction we are heading.

    As for expanding our user base, we believe it should occur organically. Our primary focus is on achieving the goals we have set, and we anticipate that user growth will naturally follow. Our emphasis lies in delivering our intended objectives rather than solely focusing on increasing user numbers.

    How do you envision BigHit impacting the Indian sports economy and the lives of Indian sportspeople in the next few years?

    Mr. Kore: For now, we are thoroughly enjoying our participation in the Asian Games, securing a substantial number of medals. However, when you compare this to the Olympics, India, with a population of approximately 1.4 billion, currently holds around 35 medals. It is not because we lack talented athletes; in fact, we have an abundance of talent. The issue lies in the recognition of these athletes at a young age. Our aim is to foster this recognition from a very early stage to cultivate more athletes. The overarching goal is to transform India into the world’s premier sporting nation.

    We have witnessed an enormous amount of talent emerging in sports like football from regions such as Odisha, Jharkhand, and Manipur. Their potential often surpasses that of athletes from metropolitan cities. Our objective is to identify and scout this talent from a tender age and provide them with a platform. A critical aspect here is creating an endgame. In India, even if a young athlete achieves success, such as winning the Subroto Cup in football, there’s often no clear path for what comes next. Our focus is on establishing endgame opportunities in certain sports, leading to success stories. Once we have heroes like Kapil Dev did for Cricket in India or as Neeraj Chopra recently did for Javelin, the entire population will embrace these sports, resulting in more heroes emerging in those domains. The ultimate vision is to create heroes in specific sports and propel India to become a more accomplished sporting nation. That is the essence of our vision.

    Mr. Prakash: To complement your question, let us delve into how we aim to impact the sports economy. Essentially, our goal is to expand the market, much like what the Indian Premier League (IPL) did for cricket. I believe that a couple of Intellectual Properties (IPs) will have a similar transformative effect on football. When you establish an IP of this magnitude, it opens up numerous avenues.

    Before the IPL, you had eleven players representing the Indian cricket team. Now, we have ten teams in the IPL, each with a squad of 26 or 27 players, significantly boosting the demand for cricketers. Moreover, the IPL has become a massive source of entertainment. Beyond the players, you also need stadiums, event management personnel, cameramen, and various other professionals to orchestrate the spectacle. You create an entirely new industry that did not exist a decade and a half ago.

    Our approach is akin to this. We are expanding the sports market and generating IPs that not only have a significant economic impact but also create a plethora of job opportunities in and around the entire sporting ecosystem. This, I believe, is the contribution we can make.

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  • Analyzing Government Advertising Expenditure in India: Transforming Media Strategies

    The famous Amul girl was probably one of the earliest media influencers that we know of. From there, till today, where we have millions of influencers influencing our lives’ choices on a daily basis, the journey of advertisements has seen a huge evolution.

    Let’s rewind to the 1700s. A British officer stationed in Calcutta named James Augustus Hickey published the country’s first newspaper known as “Hickey’s Bengal Gazette” or “The Bengal Gazette” in 1780. To fund the newspapers and for a few other reasons, Hickey started posting advertisements in the newspaper, thus beginning the journey of advertisements in India.

    Today we’re in a state, where we have to watch not one, but two advertisements before almost every YouTube video. Advertisements have become such an inescapable part of our daily lives.

    Evolution of Media Strategies
    Government’s Expenditure on Advertisements
    What Do Experts Say About the Trends in Print and Digital Advertisements?
    Role of Advertisements in the Country’s Economy

    Evolution of Media Strategies

    Over the past few decades, the landscape of advertising in India has undergone a huge transformative shift, primarily fuelled by the digital revolution. Traditional media, while still relevant, has taken a backseat as digital platforms emerged as the new frontier.

    The 20th and 21st centuries saw a huge transformation of advertisements from newspapers, magazine advertising, radio broadcasting, television advertising, and Out-of-home advertisements which include billboards, transit advertising, and street furniture advertising to digital and mobile advertising.

    Now, in the digital age, reports like ‘Internet in India Report 2022’ say that there are 759 million active internet users in India as of 2022. Also, the numbers are expected to rise to 900 million by 2025.

    As a result, brands have started to redirect their focus towards online spaces, leveraging social media, search engines, and other digital channels to connect with their audience. Today, social media is where ads shine, and influencers play a big role. Thus, from clever memes to touching short films, Indian ads have come a long way since the beginning of advertisements in the 1780s.

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    Government’s Expenditure on Advertisements

    Keeping this evolution story aside, now let’s see some numbers to analyze the actual state and growth of advertisements in the past few years.

    Reports say that the Government’s expenditure on advertisements in print, electronic & digital media has shown a declining trend in the past few years.

    In response to an RTI query, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting released some numbers in July 2023.

    According to them, the central government’s advertisement expenditure was ₹1180 crore in 2018-19, ₹708 crore in 2019-20, ₹409 crore in 2020-21 and further declining to ₹315 crore in 2021-22.

    Now let’s compare the print & digital advertisements.

    Year Print Digital
    2018-2019 ₹430 crore ₹515 crore
    2019-2020 ₹295 crore ₹317 crore
    2020-2021 ₹198 crore ₹167 crore
    2021-2022 ₹179 crore ₹101 crore

    What’s surprising from the above table is that while the expenditure on print advertisements is expected to fall with the growing digital media, the expenditure on digital advertisements is expected to have risen over the years, which is evidently not the case.

    Earlier in 2021, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur had said that the government has cut back on spending on advertisements by limiting the quantity of non-communication advertisements like those that invite bids or post job openings and by providing a small amount of information with links to more information.

    This being the case, reports also say that the expenditure on advertisements by the government has slightly gone up in the financial year 2023 to ₹375 crores.

    The Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL) forecasts, “The revenue of print media is expected to jump 13 to 15 percent this year (2023) on the back of higher spending on advertisements by corporates as well as the government due to upcoming elections”.

    On the same lines, Amit Khurana, deputy chief executive officer, of TechNova Imaging Systems says, “With newsprint prices declining, the newspaper industry is heading towards profitability.”

    Commenting on the digital media trends, media analyst Karan Taurani says, “Over the last few years, radio advertisements have come down sharply, considering their low popularity. But TV advertisements haven’t really fallen.”

    From all these reports & comments, we get a broader picture of where the different forms of advertisements stand, today.

    But why do advertisements need so much analysis? What role do they play in a country’s economy?

    Role of Advertisements in the Country’s Economy

    Advertisements play a multifaceted role in the development of a country, influencing various aspects of society and the economy.

    Advertisements are crucial for economic development as they drive consumer spending. By promoting goods and services, advertisements contribute to increased sales and production, fostering economic growth.

    Also, the advertising industry itself becomes a source of employment and stimulates demand for creative talent, marketing professionals, and media personnel.

    Advertisements provide a platform for businesses & entrepreneurs, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to reach a wider audience. Effective advertising can help startups and entrepreneurs establish their brands, attract customers, and compete in the market.

    Governments often use advertising to generate revenue. The public service announcements, sponsored content, and partnerships with private advertisers contribute to government coffers.

    Advertisements play a role in shaping cultural norms and values. They reflect and influence societal trends, attitudes, and aspirations. Ad campaigns often contribute to cultural conversations, challenging stereotypes, and promoting inclusivity.

    The media industry is significantly dependent on income generated from advertising. Newspapers, television, radio, and online platforms depend on ads for financial sustenance.

    Advertisements are a means of disseminating information about products, services, and public initiatives. Public service announcements also educate citizens about health, safety, and civic responsibilities.

    Advertisements are powerful tools for social advocacy. Campaigns addressing social issues, such as public health, environmental concerns, and social justice, can raise awareness and mobilize support for positive change.

    For instance, advertisements played a major role in spreading crucial awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Conclusion

    On the whole, advertisements play a pivotal role in shaping the economic, cultural, and social dimensions of a country. That said, the utilization and expenditure on advertisements also depend on the current economic & social conditions prevailing in a country.

    Yet, in every circumstance, it is important to strike a balance between commercial interests and societal welfare to ensure that advertisements contribute positively to a country’s development.

  • Harness the Power of AI with These Top AI Video Generator Tools in 2023

    We are all drawn toward videos. After all, videos tend to grab our attention and make way more sense in terms of the time invested. Video content has become a powerful tool to capture the attention of website visitors. According to Wyzowl, over 91% of marketers use video content on their websites. However, creating high-quality videos can be time-consuming and require significant video editing skills. Thankfully, with the development of artificial intelligence (AI), there are now several AI-powered tools available to streamline the video creation process and save you time. In this article, we will explore the best AI video generators in 2023 that can help you create impressive videos faster and more efficiently.

    What is an AI Video Generator?

    An AI video generator is a web-based or standalone software that utilizes artificial intelligence to simplify the process of creating video assets. These tools are designed to assist both experienced video creators and beginners without any video editing experience. AI video generators can help with tasks such as erasing video elements, creating green screens, converting text to video scripts, and much more. By incorporating AI video tools into your workflow, you can create videos in a fraction of the time, making you more productive and expanding your reach on the internet.

    Best AI Video Generators

    To help you navigate through the available options, we have conducted extensive research and tested various AI video generators. Here are our top picks for the top AI video generators you can use:

    Pictory

    Name Pictory
    Free Plan Available
    USP URL to video generation
    Pictory - Top AI Video Generator Tools
    Pictory – Top AI Video Generator Tools

    Pictory is an AI-powered video generator that allows you to create videos in just a few minutes. You can generate videos from a script or article, edit existing videos with text, or use a collection of image assets to create a video. Pictory offers over three million royalty-free images, gifs, stickers, and emojis that can be easily inserted into your video projects. It also provides pre-made video templates and the option for AI or human voiceovers.

    When testing Pictory, we found the URL-to-video setting to be particularly useful. By inputting a URL from a blog post, we were able to generate a two-minute video within minutes. Pictory did a great job of identifying the key points and headlines of the post and provided us with relevant templates and images. Although some tweaking was required to get the final product, Pictory allowed us to make changes and add branding elements to create a customized video.

    Pricing: Pictory offers three pricing plans. (They also offer a free trial that allows the users to create 3 video projects).

    Plan Pricing
    Standard $19/month
    Premium $39/month
    Teams $99/month
    Pricing of Pictory
    Pricing of Pictory

    Synthesia

    Name Synthesia
    Free Plan Not Available
    USP Realistic AI Videos
    Synthesia - Top AI Video Generator Tools
    Synthesia – Top AI Video Generator Tools

    Synthesia is an AI video generator that stands out for its custom AI avatars and voices. With over 120 unique AI models and support for over 120 languages, Synthesia allows you to deliver your message in the language of your choice. It offers features such as text-to-speech voiceovers, AI script assistance, and built-in screen recording.

    One of the standout features of Synthesia is its ability to create realistic AI videos. You can start with a template, choose an AI avatar and voice, and add custom assets and branding. The result is a polished video that can be used for training, marketing materials, or presentations. While Synthesia may not offer as many features for social media videos, it excels in creating professional-looking videos for specific purposes.

    Pricing: Synthesia essentially offers two pricing plans with one of the plans based on the number of seats:

    Plan Pricing
    Personal $22.50/month
    Enterprise Based on the number of seats
    Pricing of Synthesia
    Pricing of Synthesia

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    Wave Video

    Name Wave Video
    Free Plan Available
    USP Video hosting capability
    Wave Video - Top AI Video Generator Tools
    Wave Video – Top AI Video Generator Tools

    Wave Video is a comprehensive AI video generator that can be compared to Canva but for video. It offers a wide range of video editing tools, including image and video assets, text overlay effects, audio, captions, and more. Wave Video supports various video formats for different platforms, and it provides access to a vast library of stock assets.

    One standout feature of Wave Video is its video hosting capability. By hosting your videos through Wave Video, you can ensure fast and smooth playback on your website, reducing bounce rates and keeping your audience engaged. Wave Video is particularly useful for design professionals, bloggers, and marketers who want to create visually appealing videos without the need for advanced video editing skills.

    Pricing: Wave Video offers four pricing plans. The plans shown below are billed yearly, which provides the users with additional discounts:

    Plan Pricing
    Free $0/month
    Streamer $16/month
    Creator $24/month
    Business $48/month
    Pricing of Wave Video
    Pricing of Wave Video

    Tutorial to use Wave video

    Designs.AI

    Name Designs.AI
    Free Plan Not Available
    USP Text to video generator
    Designs.AI
    Designs.AI – Top AI Video Generator Tools

    Designs.AI is an all-in-one platform that offers an AI video generator along with other creative tools. While its video maker may be relatively basic, Designs.AI excels in other areas such as AI voiceovers, text-to-video conversion, and font pairing. It also provides AI tools for creating images and text content.

    One unique feature of Designs.AI is its ability to create video scripts from text prompts. By inputting descriptive prompts, you can quickly generate a video with customizable voice and theme options. Designs.AI offers advanced AI tools to help you generate diverse digital content formats, making it a great choice for creators who need more than just video assets.

    Pricing: Designs.AI offers three types of pricing plans. The plans shown below are billed yearly, which provides the users with additional discounts:

    Plan Pricing
    Basic $19/month
    Pro $69/month
    Enterprise $169/month
    Pricing of Designs.AI
    Pricing of Designs.AI

    Runway

    Name Runway
    Free Plan Available
    USP Text prompt feature
    Runway - Top AI Video Generator Tools
    Runway – Top AI Video Generator Tools

    Runway is a cutting-edge AI video generator that focuses on experimentation with generative AI. It offers a range of video effects, including AI background removal, static image upscaling, text-to-image generation, and more. Runway’s video-to-video tool allows you to transform and enhance the visual style of your existing videos, making it ideal for creating unique and visually appealing content.

    One of the standout features of Runway is its text prompt feature. By inputting descriptive prompts, you can generate videos with stunning visual effects and surprising results. While Runway is still in beta, it performed well in our tests and offers a free tier for users to explore and experiment with various video effects.

    Pricing: Runway offers various pricing plans catering to the different needs of their customers:

    Plans Pricing
    Basic $0/month
    Standard $12/month
    Pro $28/month
    Unlimited $76/month
    Enterprise Custom made package
    Pricing of Runway
    Pricing of Runway

    Rawshorts

    Name Rawshorts
    Free Plan Available
    USP AI script generator
    Rawshorts - Top AI Video Generator Tools
    Rawshorts – Top AI Video Generator Tools

    Rawshorts is an AI video generator that offers several tools for creating videos. It provides a range of professional video templates, AI chat for generating video ideas, AI script generation, and a storyboard mode for creating videos based on specific categories such as business, internal communications, or education.

    One of the standout features of Rawshorts is its AI script generator. By chatting with the AI assistant, you can generate script ideas for creating engaging explainer videos. Rawshorts also offers various editing tools, including text editing, video editing, audio editing, and customizable effects, making it a great option for creating quick and professional videos.

    Pricing: Rawshorts offers three pricing plans. The plans shown below are billed yearly, which provides the users with additional discounts:

    Plans Pricing
    Starter $0/month
    Essential $20/month
    Business $30/month
    Pricing of Rawshorts
    Pricing of Rawshorts

    Lumen5

    Name Lumen5
    Free Plan Not Available
    USP Written content to videos
    Lumen5 - Top AI Video Generator Tools
    Lumen5 – Top AI Video Generator Tools

    Lumen5 is an AI video generator that uses machine learning AI to convert written content into videos. You can input a URL or paste your text, and Lumen5 will match your content with relevant images chosen by AI. It automatically synchronizes the voiceover with your text based on average reading speed. Lumen5 also provides multiple video formats for distribution and offers the option to create brand kits for a uniform look across all your videos.

    While Lumen5 offers an easy way to generate videos with AI, it may have fewer tools compared to other providers on our list. However, if you have a creative background and prefer a simpler tool, Lumen5 can still be a good fit for creating videos for various platforms.

    Pricing: Lumen5 offers four different pricing plans. The plans shown below are billed yearly, which provides the users with additional discounts:

    Plans Pricing
    Basic $19/month
    Starter $59/month
    Professional $149/month
    Enterprise Custom pricing
    Pricing of Lumen5
    Pricing of Lumen5

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    FlexClip

    Name FlexClip
    Free Plan Available
    USP AI subtitle feature
    FlexClip - Top AI Video Generator Tools
    FlexClip – Top AI Video Generator Tools

    FlexClip is an AI video generator that focuses on simplicity and ease of use. It offers a wide range of video templates, a text-to-speech engine with support for over 140 languages, auto subtitles with AI, and thousands of pre-designed templates for social media videos.

    One of the standout features of FlexClip is its AI subtitles feature. By inputting your script, FlexClip’s AI algorithm analyses your video frames and accurately applies subtitles to each one. FlexClip also allows you to customize your videos with various effects, text, and images, making it a great option for small businesses that need videos for marketing or internal communications.

    Pricing: FlexClip offers three pricing plans. The plans shown below are billed yearly, which provides the users with additional discounts:

    Plans Pricing
    Free $0/month
    Plus $9.99/month
    Business $19.99/month
    Pricing of FlexClip
    Pricing of FlexClip

    Conclusion

    AI video generators have revolutionized and customized the process of creating videos by simplifying and streamlining various tasks. Whether you’re a seasoned video creator or a beginner, these AI tools can help you produce high-quality videos in less time. From Pictory’s quick video generation to Synthesia’s digital avatars and Runway’s generative AI effects, there are options available for every type of video project. Explore these AI video generators to enhance your video creation process and deliver impressive videos to your audience. But, we must let you know that the use cases differ, and the outputs too – rightly based on your inputs.

    FAQs

    Which tools support more than 120 languages to generate video?

    Synthesia and FlexClip support more than 120 languages.

    Which AI video generator is free?

    Synthesia’s free demo video generator can convert text to video for free.

    Can AI be 100% accurate?

    Once a machine learning model is trained and the training accuracy is calculated, so there might be a huge chance that the accuracy would result in a high range probably in the nineties or even 100%

  • Silicon Valley Bank Failure and Its Impact on India

    On March 10, 2022, the entire business world woke up to this shocking news from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC),

    “Today, Silicon Valley Bank, located in Santa Clara, California, was shut down by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has been designated as the receiver in this case.”

    This news sent shockwaves throughout the sector. This was the largest bank to have failed since the 2008 financial crisis & the second largest in the history of the US. This created huge chaos in the financial market because the shutdown of a bank as large as SVB would mean a very large situational crisis for businesses all over the world.

    About the SVB
    Chronology of the Events Leading to the Downfall

    Impact on India
    Current Status

    About the SVB

    Nestled in the heart of innovation and techie dreams, Silicon Valley Bank stood as the financial bedrock of the world’s most dynamic and groundbreaking industries.

    Since its inception in 1983, SVB has been one of the largest banks in the USA with more than $200 billion in assets. Silicon Valley Bank is a venture debt provider that specializes in funding tech startups all over the world.

    As the financial pulse of the tech mecca, SVB had greatly adapted to the fast-paced rhythms of Silicon Valley.

    This financial powerhouse had been more than a bank to the startups; it was a strategic partner, a mentor to startups, and a catalyst for entrepreneurial success.

    With a client list like Tesla, Uber & LinkedIn, SVB had carved a niche as the go-to financial institution for the ever-evolving needs of the tech community. In 2022, Forbes named SVB among America’s best banks.

    Largest Bank Failures in the United States, March 2023
    Largest Bank Failures in the United States, March 2023

    Chronology of the Events Leading to the Downfall

    Just like the many other important events of the past decade, this too had its genesis in the pandemic. Adding fire to the flame was the Ukraine-Russia war.

    Let’s dig deeper into its roots.

    The Pandemic

    As the pandemic hit and the whole world came to a standstill inside the four walls, the software industry was one among the few others that remained largely unaffected.

    This turned the attention of the venture capitalists towards this industry. This resulted in the tech startups raising a huge sum of money in 2021. These venture capital investments nearly doubled year-over-year to around $329 billion in 2021.

    This further resulted in banks holding a lot of deposits including the SVB. According to data by Bloomberg, it was estimated that as of March 2021, SVB had jumped to $124 billion from $62 billion in the previous year.

    On the other hand, due to the pandemic, the interest rates have gone too low. SVB wanted to make use of this situation & provided high-interest rates to the depositors at around 2.33% while other banks like Bank of America were giving an interest rate of 0.96%.

    This also resulted in many big businesses depositing their money with SVB resulting in a huge influx of cash.

    As a result, SVB invested heavy sums of money in long-term bonds for its Hold to Maturity (HTM) portfolio with 10 years of maturity.

    Everything was smooth until the next major factor came in.

    Ukraine-Russia War

    The war led to an energy crisis all over the world leading to a high inflation rate. According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, inflation in the US peaked at 9.1 % in 2022. So, as the usual financial procedure goes, the interest rates skyrocketed to 4.33%.

    This led to the lowering of bond values affecting the values of bonds bought by SVB. Also due to high interest rates, businesses, instead of opting for loans for their financial needs, started withdrawing their deposits from the bank. This led to billions of dollars being withdrawn from the bank at the same time.

    To address this liquidity crisis, SVB had to sell a $ 21 billion bond portfolio at a $1.8 billion loss.

    As the news spread, this led to a situation of bank-run further creating a sense of fear in the whole business world and the stocks of SVB plunged by 60% in a single day. As a result, SVB couldn’t carry on further with its banking activities.

    Eventually, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took over and created a new bank called the National Bank of Santa Clara to continue the business activities further.

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    Impact on India

    The Indian Government and the economists had assured that there wouldn’t be much of a contagion effect on the Indian market due to the collapse of SVB.

    Sakshi Gupta, Deputy Vice President of HDFC Bank says, “The SVB collapse is unlikely to turn into a systemic risk. India’s banking system exposure to the SVB collapse is low and the health of the banking system remains sound….”

    That said, we need to understand that some sectors including our tech-based startups and IT firms will be affected to some extent.

    For example, among the startups, specifically those that were funded by the American incubator, YCombinator will have to face the consequences of the collapse. That’s because about 60% of the YCombinator’s startups in India have exposure to SVB.

    Also, this collapse might slow down the funding that the whole startup ecosystem has been getting & result in an overall slowdown of the sector.

    Another important factor to consider is the decline in overall confidence that the public has in the banking system resulting in a drop in deposits & other banking activities.

    As far as SVB’s Indian clients are concerned, their priority should be to determine how exposed they are to the bank and take the necessary precautions to safeguard their assets and enterprises. This may include getting legal help, revisiting loan terms, and looking for other finance and investment options.

    Current Status

    Currently, Silicon Valley Bank is operating as a division of the First Citizen Bank

    Conclusion

    The downfall of a bank as big as SVB is a reminder of the significance of prudent risk management and investing methods, particularly in the financial industry. It also emphasizes the importance of policymakers carefully considering how their choices would affect the financial sector and the overall economy.

  • Brian Chesky and His Unconventional Strategies Towards His Success

    “The hardest thing to manage in a crisis is your own psychology…The optimistic mentality is the mentality you need to be creative. And you need to be creative because, in a crisis, you often have no good solutions”– Brian Chesky

    This is how Brian Chesky, an American businessman, the Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb overcame the challenges he faced in building this international business.

    Today, if we have the luxury of traveling and hassle-free vacationing anywhere & anytime without worrying about the factor of accommodation in an unknown new place, then we have a few innovations & their founders to thank for. One of them being, Airbnb & its founder Brian Chesky.

    He brought unconventional changes to the established travel market through his innovative thinking, tenacity, and enthusiasm.

    This article is precisely the biography of Brian Chesky where we will discuss his success story beyond all hurdles.

    Brian Chesky – Biography

    Name Brian Chesky
    Birthplace Niskayuna, Newyork
    Born August 29, 1981
    Nationality American
    Education Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design
    Position Co-founder and CEO
    Net worth $8.6 billion

    Brian Chesky – Early Life
    Brian Chesky – Career and Conception of Airbnb
    Brian Chesky – Hurdles and Challenges
    Brian Chesky – Achieving Success Beyond the Hurdles
    Brian Chesky – Investments
    Brian Chesky – Philanthropy
    Brian Chesky – Awards and Recognitions
    Brian Chesky – Fun Fact
    Brian Chesky – Famous Quotes

    Brian Chesky – Early Life

    Brian Chesky was born in Niskayuna, New York, on August 29, 1981, and both of his parents were social workers. Raised in a middle-class family, he showed an early interest in art and design. Chesky’s childhood laid the foundation for his future entrepreneurial endeavors.

    Chesky attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design. His time at RISD exposed him to the intersection of art, design, and business, sparking his creative and entrepreneurial spirit.

    An interesting fact about Chesky is that before getting into his entrepreneurial activities, Chesky was a hockey player and was also into bodybuilding.

    Brian Chesky – Career and Conception of Airbnb

    Brian Chesky was employed as an industrial designer and strategist at 3DID in Los Angeles after graduating from college.

    After moving to San Francisco, Chesky got a roommate, Joe Gebbia. Later on, this encounter was the one that paved way for the development of Airbnb.

    To accommodate guests of a design conference, Chesky and Gebbia made the decision to rent out air mattresses in their San Francisco residence. This original trial served as the foundation for one of the most innovative and prosperous businesses of the twenty-first century. Thus, Airbnb was conceived in 2007 as a result of its financial challenges.

    Later on, Chesky got the company of an engineer, Nathan Blecharczyk, along with whom, Chesky officially co-founded Airbnb.

    The platform aimed to connect travelers with spare rooms in private homes, offering a more personalized and affordable alternative to traditional hotels. This practice was a new innovation in the travel & lodging industry.

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    Brian Chesky – Hurdles and Challenges

    The trio faced numerous challenges in the early days. Convincing people to open their homes to strangers and further building a critical mass of both hosts and guests was a significant challenge.

    Above this was the safety concern. Building trust was crucial for the success of Airbnb. Users needed to feel safe renting or hosting through the platform.

    Also, as the base grew, the platform faced technological challenges in terms of scalability and ensuring a seamless user experience.

    Over and above all these there were other challenges like financial hurdles, educating the market about this new way of traveling & accommodating, international expansion, regulatory hurdles, and much more.

    Brian Chesky – Achieving Success Beyond the Hurdles

    But all these hurdles didn’t put them down from the success that Airbnb saw in the following years.

    That said, the path to success was definitely not a bed of roses. Chesky and his team had to come up with many critical & strategic ideas like implementing policies and procedures to manage crises, employing creative marketing strategies, establishing features such as host and guest reviews, secure payment systems, enhanced identity verification, accommodating different cultural expectations and many more to overcome those challenges.

    One fine example of overcoming the financial crisis in the early stages would be their innovative idea.

    To fund the young company, Chesky and his co-founders resorted to their brilliant unconventional methods. They made use of the elections in 2008 presidential elections and created limited-edition cereal boxes called “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCain’s”, raising around $30,000 to keep Airbnb afloat.

    This creative and resourceful approach demonstrated Chesky and his team’s ability to think outside the box, a trait that would serve him well in the years to come.

    Under Chesky’s leadership, Airbnb expanded globally, reaching over 220 countries and regions. His emphasis on community, trust, and design contributed to Airbnb’s distinctive brand identity.

    Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: Hotel prices will ‘probably rise’ next year

    Brian Chesky – Investments

    Here are some prominent investments made by Brian Chesky:

    Announced Date Organization Name Funding Round Money Raised
    November 22, 2022 Capitol Seed Round $10 million
    April 16, 2013 Flight Car Series A $5.6 million
    April 03, 2013 Balanced Seed Round $2 million
    November 16, 2012 Balanced Seed Round $1.4 million
    October 01, 2012 Summly Venture Round $1.2 million
    April 30, 2012 SocialCam Angel Round –

    Brian Chesky – Philanthropy

    Apart from being a successful businessman, Chesky has been an active philanthropist. Here is a list of his philanthropic activities:

    • Chesky joined Warren Buffett and Bill Gates ‘The Giving Pledge’ on June 11, 2016, a group of billionaires who have promised to give away the majority of their wealth
    • In 2020, amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, Chesky and his partners pledged $100 million to support COVID-19 relief efforts
    • Chesky gave $100 million to the Obama Foundation in May 2022 to establish a scholarship program for students seeking careers in public service
    • In 2020, Chesky announced the launch of Airbnb.org, a separate nonprofit organization within Airbnb with the aim to provide temporary housing to people in times of crisis.

    To quote Chesky, “There is a saying that a great trip can set you down a path that doesn’t end when you return. With this pledge, I want to help more kids realize the kind of journey I have had. I want to show them that their dreams are not bounded by what they can see in front of them….”

    Brian Chesky – Awards and Recognitions

    Brian Chesky has received many prestigious awards in his life. Here’s a compilation of the awards he has received:

    • Brian Chesky was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Consumer Technology category in 2011
    • In 2015, Chesky was named to the TIME’s 100 list, which identifies the most influential people in the world
    • Chesky was recognized by Glassdoor as one of the highest-rated CEOs in 2016
    • Forbes 100 richest tech billionaires in the world – 2017
    • He was listed in the Forbes Global game changer list – 2017
    • He was named under Forbes’s wealthiest Americans in 2023
    • Boston University School of Hospitality Administration’s third annual ICON Award 2023

    Brian Chesky – Fun Fact

    💡

    Chesky in his yearbook wrote – “I’m sure I’ll amount to nothing.” Though he found it funny, his father didn’t.

    Brian Chesky – Famous Quotes

    “If you want to create a great product, just focus on one person. Make that one person have the most amazing experience ever.”

    “Founders are like parents and the company’s the child.”

    FAQs

    Who is Brian Chesky?

    Brian Chesky is an American businessman and the Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb.

    When was Airbnb founded?

    Airbnb was founded in the year 2008.

    Who are the founders of Airbnb?

    Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk are the co-founders of Airbnb.

    What is Airbnb?

    Airbnb is an online marketplace in need of accommodation with the people (hosts) who are willing to rent their home or space in a particular locality.

  • Web3’s Impact on Indian Economy; $1.1 Trillion Growth by 2032

    Web3 to add $1.1 trillion to India’s GDP by 2032. Over 450 Web3 startups in India raised $1.3 billion in funding by April 2023.

    Web3 is the next generation of the internet, built on blockchain technology. It is a decentralized and open web that gives users more control over their data and privacy. Web3 is still in its early stages of development, but it has the potential to revolutionize many industries and sectors.

    Web3 is impacting the Indian economy in several ways. One of the most significant impacts is on economic growth. A report by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum found that Web3 could add $1.1 trillion to India’s GDP by 2032. This growth would be driven by several factors, including the creation of new jobs, the expansion of existing businesses, and the development of new industries.

    A report by NASSCOM found that over 450 Web3 startups in India had raised $1.3 billion in funding by April 2023. This funding is being used to develop new Web3 products and services and to hire new employees. The Web3 job market in India is expected to continue to grow in the years to come, as more and more businesses adopt Web3 technology.

    Another way that Web3 is impacting the Indian economy is by promoting financial inclusion. Web3 could help to bring financial services to millions of Indians who are currently unbanked or underbanked. For example, decentralized finance (DeFi) applications can provide loans and other financial services to people without a bank account. It is also fostering innovation in a wide range of sectors, including finance, healthcare, and education. For example, Indian startups are developing Web3-based applications for everything from supply chain management to medical records. These applications have the potential to improve efficiency, transparency, and security in a variety of industries.

    Key Impacts of Web3 on the Indian Economy
    Opportunities and Challenges for Web3 to Grow in India
    Role of Government and Private Sector in Supporting the Growth
    Web3’s Impact on Key Indian Industries

    Key Impacts of Web3 on the Indian Economy

    Mr. Alankar Saxena, CTO of Mudrex, said, “Web3 is starting to transform the Indian economy already. It enables secure digital identity solutions, reduces fraud, and improves supply chain transparency. NFTs and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms are gaining traction, opening new investment opportunities. Overall, Web3 is poised to reshape various sectors, fostering innovation and economic growth.”

    As per a recent report published by Chainalysis, India ranks first globally in Grassroots Crypto Adoption. In terms of the raw volume of transactions, the country has the second-greatest number in the world, beating out those of several other, wealthier nations. About 75,000 people in the country are engaged in the sector at present. This number constitutes 11% of the global talent.

    Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Chairman of Bharat Web3 Association said, “The widespread adoption of Web3 in the country is visible across the spectrum of applications that have evolved out of the technology. For example, consider DeFi. The country has been the number one adopter of DeFi in terms of value received on the chain, with an estimated $88 billion received in 2020-21. The NFT market alone generated a revenue of $9 million in 2023 and is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.”

    Further, he also mentioned that use cases of the technology have emerged across sectors over the years with public and private sector organizations implementing Web3 for solutions related to education, lending, real estate, service delivery, healthcare, and more.

    The government of Maharashtra recently issued caste certificates to its 65,000 residents via LegitDoc — a polygon public blockchain-based platform. Further, the Delhi Forensic Science Laboratory (DFSL) and the Delhi Police have integrated blockchain technology into their e-forensic application, ensuring an immutable and transparent record of the chain of custody for evidence.

    Investments in Indian Web3 Startups
    Investments in Indian Web3 Startups

    Opportunities and Challenges for Web3 to Grow in India

    Mr. Trishneet Arora, Founder and CEO of TAC Security pointed out a few key opportunities and challenges existing in the Indian Web3 space.

    Opportunities

    • Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Adoption: India’s financial landscape is poised for transformation with DeFi. The opportunity for decentralized lending, borrowing, and trading platforms to provide financial inclusion and accessibility to millions of unbanked or underbanked Indians is immense.
    • Blockchain-based Supply Chains: India’s supply chain challenges, particularly in agriculture, can benefit from blockchain’s transparency and traceability. Blockchain-based solutions offer the opportunity to streamline supply chains, reduce fraud, and improve food safety.
    • Digital Identity Solutions: India’s push for digital identity solutions is an opportunity for Web3 to provide secure, self-sovereign identity solutions.
    • NFT Market Growth: India’s thriving art and entertainment industry can benefit from NFTs, allowing creators to monetize digital assets.
    • Smart Contracts for Legal Tech: Smart contracts can revolutionize the legal industry by automating agreements and reducing the need for intermediaries.
    • Data Privacy and Ownership: The growing concern for data privacy and ownership provides opportunities for Web3 solutions that empower individuals to control their data.
    • DApps for Business: Decentralized applications (DApps) built on blockchain offer increased transparency and security. They can find applications in supply chain management, finance, and more.

    Challenges

    • Regulatory Uncertainty: The evolving regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies and blockchain in India poses a challenge.
    • Cybersecurity Threats: With the growth of Web3, cybersecurity threats become more complex. TAC Security faces the challenge of staying ahead of emerging threats and vulnerabilities to provide robust cybersecurity solutions.
    • Lack of Awareness: Widespread adoption of Web3 technologies in India may be hindered by a lack of awareness and understanding. TAC Security can contribute to education and awareness efforts to address this challenge.
    • Infrastructure and Connectivity: Web3 relies on a robust digital infrastructure and reliable internet connectivity. Addressing infrastructure gaps and improving connectivity in remote areas can be challenging but essential for Web3 growth.
    • User Trust and Adoption: Building user trust in Web3 applications and encouraging adoption is crucial.
    • Scalability: As Web3 platforms gain popularity, scalability becomes a challenge.
    • Interoperability: The interoperability of different Web3 technologies and blockchains is vital for seamless integration.

    Web3 presents a transformative potential for India, with opportunities spanning finance, supply chains, digital identity, and more. However, it also comes with regulatory, cybersecurity, and infrastructure challenges that TAC Security must address to facilitate its growth and secure its implementation effectively.

    Mr. Kumar Gaurav, Founder and CEO of Cashaa said, “Until the uncertainty in regulations persists, the investment community cannot go full steam in backing this technological development in the country and large-scale mass adoption will also not be possible. Educating the user base about the potential and challenges of this technology is also lacking at the moment.”

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    Role of Government and Private Sector in Supporting the Growth

    The Government has taken a keen interest in the development of Web3 in the country with the Ministry of Information and Technology (MeitY) working to develop the National Blockchain Framework and advance the National Blockchain Strategy. The Bharat Web3 Association (BWA) also conducted a workshop in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Technology as part of a larger effort to demystify Web3 and bridge the gap between the government and the private sector.

    Mr. Chenoy, of Bharat Web3 Association, said, “The government and private sector have also been collaborating on Capacity Building and Education in the Web3 space. Private as well as government universities are increasingly integrating dedicated Web3 curriculums and programs to familiarize students with the nuances of Web3 and develop a specific skill set for future growth within the sector.”

    He further mentioned that the governments can also provide financial support to startups engaged in the Web3 space through funding programs, grants, tax breaks, and other incentives to incentivize the growth of the Web3 sector in India.

    India has also seen major developments in terms of regulation over the past 2 years. The major developments include MeitY releasing the National Strategy on Blockchain, The Advertising Standards Council of India releasing guidelines for advertising VDAs, inclusion of VDAs under the purview of the Income Tax Act, 1961, The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issuing guidelines for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) under the IT Act 2001, National Cyber Crime reporting portal creating a channel for customers to report fraud in the industry, and Prevention of Money Laundering Act registering VASPs as ‘reporting entities’.

    Additionally, state governments have also taken a proactive approach to the growth of the Web3 sector. This can be seen through the development of regulatory sandboxes, which provide a controlled environment for testing and experimentation with Web3 technologies in a compliant manner. The Telangana Regulatory Sandbox initiated by the Government of Telangana, allows startups, innovators, and corporates to test their solutions in a controlled environment over up to 6 months. Several state governments are now interested in the creation of a regulatory sandbox to promote the growth of Web3 startups in their states.

    Mr. Arora, of TAC Security highlighted several key developments in India’s Web3 landscape. Private sector entities, particularly startups, are actively driving Web3 solutions across sectors like finance, healthcare, and supply chain, bolstering Web3 technology’s growth. Private investors and venture capital firms provide essential funding, expediting innovation. Companies are integrating Web3 tech into their operations, such as blockchain for supply chain management and DeFi in finance. Collaborations between private organizations and educational institutions are addressing the skills gap in the industry, while advocacy groups promote Web3 technologies. Additionally, private cybersecurity firms, including TAC Security, are enhancing security for Web3 platforms. Mr. Arora stressed the significance of public-private collaboration in India, with the government working on regulatory frameworks and digital infrastructure, while the private sector fuels Web3 innovation, investment, and adoption, ensuring its sustainable growth in the country.

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    Web3’s Impact on Key Indian Industries

    Nishant Sachdev, VP-Strategy, Compunnel, mentioned that India’s extensive tech population has the potential to significantly contribute to Web3. He highlighted that Compunnel’s AI-supported recruitment platforms are dedicated to matching the appropriate talent with the changing requirements within this domain.

    He also pointed out the significance of the rising middle class and how it can impact business dynamics. Nishant Sachdev emphasized that their market research, powered by OpenAI, is focused on identifying the evolving investment trends within this demographic. This research aids businesses in customizing their offerings to align with the changing preferences and needs of the middle class.

    Web3 technologies have the potential to impact a wide range of industries in India. While their influence can extend to many sectors, some specific industries are likely to be significantly impacted by Web3:

    • Finance and Banking: Web3 technologies, especially blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi), can revolutionize traditional banking and financial services. They offer opportunities for faster and more cost-effective transactions, financial inclusion, and secure digital assets management.
    • Supply Chain Management: Blockchain-based supply chain solutions can enhance transparency, traceability, and efficiency in industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and logistics. This can lead to reduced fraud, improved product quality, and streamlined processes.
    • Healthcare: Web3 technologies can secure and streamline electronic health records, ensuring data privacy and interoperability. Smart contracts can automate insurance claims, and telemedicine can benefit from decentralized applications (DApps).
    • Government and Governance: Blockchain has the potential to enhance government services, such as land record management, voting systems, and identity verification. This can lead to reduced corruption, increased transparency, and efficient public service delivery.
    • Art and Entertainment: Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Web3 platforms have opened up new avenues for artists, musicians, and content creators to monetize their digital assets. The entertainment industry can leverage blockchain for rights management.
    • Education: Blockchain can be used to verify academic credentials and qualifications, reducing fraud, and simplifying the verification process for educational institutions and employers.
    • Real Estate: Property transactions and land records can be made more secure and efficient with blockchain technology, reducing the risk of fraud and disputes.
    • Agriculture: Web3 can help farmers by providing transparent and secure supply chain solutions. It can also facilitate access to financing and markets for agricultural products.
    • Energy and Utilities: Blockchain can enable transparent energy trading and reduce fraud in utility billing. Decentralized energy grids can enhance energy distribution efficiency.
    • Legal Services: Smart contracts on blockchain can automate legal agreements, making legal processes more efficient and cost-effective.
    • Insurance: The insurance industry can benefit from smart contracts for claims processing and more accurate risk assessment.
    • Retail and E-commerce: Web3 technologies can enhance customer trust through transparent supply chains and secure online transactions.
    • Cybersecurity: With the adoption of Web3, the need for robust cybersecurity solutions to protect digital assets and user data becomes even more critical.

    Mr. Chenoy mentioned that Apollo Hospitals is employing the Metaverse for various purposes, including patient consultations before and after surgeries. Additionally, they are utilizing it for staff training to facilitate patient counseling in a virtual reality setting. The objective is to enhance patient outcomes by offering a personalized approach to each patient, ultimately leading to increased patient satisfaction.

    Furthermore, Flipkart has introduced the Flipverse, a marketplace designed to foster more immersive interactions between consumers and brands. It achieves this by granting access to brands, supercoins, and digital collectibles. The Flipverse is designed to provide gamified, interactive, and immersive shopping experiences.

    In the automotive sector in India, several manufacturers have ventured into the world of the metaverse. At the recent Auto Expo 2023, MG Motor India unveiled the MGverse, a futuristic 3D metaverse platform. This platform allows users to virtually explore the MG Pavilion at the Auto Expo 2023 from any location, offering a virtual tour of the event.

    Also, in West Bengal, the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) has outlined plans to release 500,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to enhance the land mutation process. Land mutation is a legal procedure involving the registration and transfer of land ownership.

    While these industries stand to be significantly impacted, it’s essential to note that Web3 technologies are highly versatile and can find applications in various sectors, contributing to innovation and transformation across the Indian economy.